Searching for her Second Serving
by wiscy
Summary: After getting beat on the train, Yang seeks another bout with the girl that caused her to question everything she thought she knew. Yang better be careful though because Neo might give her a lot more than she anticipated. Takes place after the events at the end of the 2nd Volume.
1. Chapter 1

A flowery parasol, a flurry of pink and brown hair, and a cocky smile that she had to admit rivaled her own. That's all Yang could think about whenever she tried to take a moment to relax these days. The fact that someone else had been able to best her so easily, and not just anyone else. It had to be the shrimp with the ice cream color scheme.

It had been a few days since the train incident in Vale and everyone else was off celebrating and taking what they thought was a well-deserved break from bad guys and general mayhem. And while Yang would typically take full advantage of this with plenty of sleep and a good night club she just couldn't. Every time the blonde got a moment to chill she would just think back to those few minutes in that train car.

The fight wasn't even a good one. Usually when Yang had to admit defeat she would at least be satisfied in the thought that she was leaving her opponent in about as rough a shape as she felt, but not this time. Every time she threw a punch at ice cream girl, Yang would only threaten the air around her. This was usually followed by that infuriating smile and maybe a soft smack from the umbrella as the woman would continue evading every shot. Usually Yang's tactic of punch her enemy until she heard the click of the Ember Celica, reload, rinse and repeat worked, but this time it wasn't good enough.

The worst part of the entire encounter was later on when she found out that while she had been out cold on the ground her long lost mother had stepped in to save her. That more than anything made Yang constantly beat herself up. It had been the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae that was the ass kicking she had received (for once, no pun intended).

Yang let out a shout of frustration, falling back onto her bed and hearing the books that provided the sort-of stability to her top bunk groan under the shifting blonde. Luckily for her the room was empty and she didn't have to explain her tirade of angst and self-loathing. Blake had just finished one of her ninja love books and wanted to go into Vale to pick up some new stories. Weiss and Ruby had gone with in order to see how the restoration of the city's center was going after the rampaging Grimm almost destroyed it. Yang had only denied the invitation to go along so she could straighten out her own thoughts and make plans on how she was going to find small, pink, and cocky.

There was just one problem. Yang knew exactly zilch about Torchwick's new henchgirl save for her odd color scheme and a name that she remembered Torchwick calling her that night after the fight in the underpass. Yang smiled at the memory of the pink and brown haired girl shattering as she tried to politely introduce the Ember Celica to the woman's face. Yang filed away the memory for later when she would need ideas of what to do when she finally caught the small girl.

"Neo," Yang grumbled, glaring at the ceiling. She thought hard, trying to think of anything that could help her in the search for little Ms. Ice Cream. Alas nothing came to her, partially due to the fact that whenever she tried to recall anything from the fight she would just feel a dull ache on the back her head from when she was somehow thrown at the top of the train. "She's strong for a small fry," Yang moaned to no one in particular, closing her eyes at the memory.

Yang's eyes suddenly flew open as an idea grew in her head. "Junior might know something," the blonde inquired, continuing her conversation with the ceiling. The owner of her favorite nightclub always was one to go to for information, and while the past couple of times hadn't resulted in much, he did have dealings with Torchwick in the past and thus might know something about his new partner in crime. At least Yang could escape her prison of angst for a night and get herself a pick-me-up, preferably in the Strawberry Sunrise variety.

Yang gathered up the energy to escape the comfort of her bed and put her plan into action. Climbing down and straightening the book supports, she walked over to her drawers to pick out her battle outfit. Something that said "I'm just here to have a good time, but if you don't give me exactly what I want I'm sending you through the window again". Eventually she just settled on her typical nightlife outfit of her black and white jacket, short black shorts and kick ass boots (pun fully intended). Putting on the garb, Yang admired herself in the mirror, straightening the tangled mess of bedhead she had. Once her hair was settled and she had her two golden bracelets secured to her wrists Yang walked out the door and down to where she kept her prized motorcycle, Bumblebee.

The deserted streets pulsed with the beats emanating from the club as Yang drove up to her preferred alleyway to park her bike. Taking off her helmet and shaking out her blonde locks of hair she entered the front entrance and slowly walked up to the bouncer at the door. The man looked up at the sound of thudding footsteps against the floor and felt his heart drop.

"Heya Jack, how's it going," Yang greeted the man, recognizing him from one of her many brawls she enjoyed here. She smiled as a small bead of sweat trickled down from his fedora, "Can Junior come out to play?" The man fumbled with his words before finally nodding and standing far to the side to allow for the blonde woman to enter the main club. "Smart move slick," Yang teased patting the man on the shoulders as she walked past. The guard just straightened his hat and slowly inched his way to the exit, anticipating how the night was going to end with Blondie in the club.

Yang strolled into the main area, looking across the room. She smiled as her heart matched the rhythm of the club. The image of the various patrons pulsed on the dance floor as the main lights strobed with the beat of the song. Red light roamed around the room as Yang shifted her gaze to the tall bearded man standing behind the bar. His two little minions weren't that far away from him and various guards stood watching the general happenings of the club.

The guards who looked back at the entrance lost whatever mirth was on their faces as they saw the large mane of blonde hair contrasted against the translucent wall behind her. One of them hurried over to the bar and tapped Junior on the shoulder, pointing up at the new predicament in the club as the other guards slowly shifted away from the entrance hoping the blonde wasn't in a particularly "fun" mood. Junior noticed all of this and sighed, inwardly cursing himself for the general unhelpfulness of his staff.

Yang walked over, staring directly at the taller man and shooting him a flirtatious smile. "Blondie," Junior called to her, "to what do I owe the displeasure?"

Yang just giggled at the man, resting both her arms on the bar in an apparent casual form. "Oh, I'm just here to catch up and check how the club was doing," Yang said with mock concern. She watched the two twins slowly walk over to back up the boss. Yang winked at the girls and made a drink motion as they just rolled their eyes.

"Well we're still standing no thanks to you and your crew," Junior scoffed, signaling for one of the girls to go ahead and make the Blondie special. "On second thought," he said as the drink was slid to Yang, "I should be thanking you guys."

"Oh really, and why is that?" the blonde asked, picking the little umbrella out of the drink and spinning it in her fingers.

Junior poured himself a drink as he replied, "After all the chaos calmed down, people just wanted to forget about the whole mess." The conversing pair looked over as a couple of patrons approached the bar, laughing and signaling for a bartender. "More and more folks are coming down to forget their problems. Drink sales are through the roof."  
"Then, it's almost like you owe me a favor, right?" Yang asked in her most innocent voice.

Junior once again berated himself, running a hand across his face as the realization of the trap that had just been sprung came upon him. He took a large swig out his drink and started pouring himself another. "I don't know if I would go that far."

"That wasn't a request Junior," Yang stated, suddenly dropping the flirtatious, girly voice and going back to her normal brutish one. "I need some information."  
"Course you do," the weary man huffed, leaning against the bar and making a gesture with his free hand to tell Blondie to get on with it.

Yang once again put on her cocky smile, acknowledging the taller man's defeat. "I need to know about one of Torchwick's little grunts that you may have seen around here."

"I told you last time you were in here with that annoying blue haired fellow, I haven't had contact with him since he hired my men." Junior stood up again with an air of finality. "I sure as hell wouldn't know anyone who may or may not be working with him."

"Yeah but I figure this one you would have to be blind to miss, although with this lighting," Yang said looking back at the strobing lights as they increased in beat with the speed of the newest song.

"You get used to it," Junior stated, putting on his sunglasses to shield some of the harsh lighting.

Yang took a sip of her drink, her smile increasing at the strawberry taste. "She's a strong silent type, half pink half brown hair. Rest of her matches the color scheme including the eyes," Yang listed off taking another taste of her magic elixir, "kinda cute in that, I'm going to enjoy kicking your ass, way." She thought back thinking how maybe if the evil witch hadn't been a complete psychopath she might have been interested. Yang shook off the thought and looked back at Junior for an answer.

The tall boss thought for a second before responding, knowing if he misled the blonde brute in any way she would be back, and in a much less pleasant mood. "I think I would remember someone like that walking into my club," he concluded looking back at his twins as they shook their head.

"That's not the answer I was looking for," the blonde growled, letting some of the pent-up frustration from the previous days bubble up to the surface.

Junior took a step back, seeing the anger in the woman flare up in front of him. "Listen," he said hurriedly, putting his hands up in a futile attempt to calm Blondie, "If I see her I'll be sure to let you know."

Yang took a deep breath as she conceded, knowing she wasn't going to get anything else here. She finished her drink and wrote her number down on a napkin, sliding it towards Junior. "Call if you see her," she stated, pointing a finger at the man, "and no booty calls or I swear." She took a step away from the bar once again taking stock of her surroundings. She instantly recognized the song playing as the one that played here the first night she walked into this club.

"Now that business is out of the way," she smiled, looking back at Junior and the twins as they also recognized the song, "anyone care for a dance, I believe this is our song." All three of them huffed in resignation as they walked away to tend to other customers, Junior pocketing the number as he left. Yang just shrugged as she turned towards the dance floor, "Can't hurt a girl for trying."

* * *

 **A/N Thanks for reading my first story. As this is the first any reviews would be welcome. The next chapter will be up as soon as I have the time in my school schedule to write it.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

" _Stand up and fight me!" Yang's thoughts were all jumbled as she stared down her multicolored adversary. The little criminal deflected every blow that came at her, always running but never in retreat. Yang knew the game that Neo was playing with her and it only infuriated the blonde brute to no end. The train jolted slightly as she glared into those cocky eyes, the scowl on Yang's face only growing fiercer as time passed. Neo, for her part, continued to sit and look at Yang, always waiting for the blonde to make the first move in their little dance._

 _Neo tilted her head to the side, contemplating the blonde like a small child and Yang charged throwing a quick series of jabs that Neo simply deflected off her umbrella as she lifted herself by one hand on her crate. The acrobat spun around kicking out her feet and flourishing the umbrella, continuing to parry the blonde's increasingly frantic jabs. Landing on her feet, Neo flipped into the air, using the momentum of her legs to hit Yang and cause the blonde to retreat under the woman's agile attacks._

 _Neo finally stopped, ending up on one foot with her other leg raised in the air and the blonde a good few meters away from her. She smiled as Yang brought her fist back for a clearly telegraphed attack. The blast from the Ember Celica flew forward and Yang watched as the pink and brown girl simply twirled and absorbed the blast with her umbrella. Yang charged the woman who currently had her back turned to her but with surprising agility spun again as Yang's fist made contact with the parasol. Neo spun back around and looked at Yang with the same smile she had at the beginning of the fight, clearly enjoying the blonde's feeble attempts at fighting._

 _Neo marched forward, using her now closed umbrella as a staff, throwing strike after strike at the blonde with Yang deflecting and blocking with a series of blasts from her gauntlets. Neo spun and threw a high kick which Yang, with a surge of triumph, caught. The blonde stepped forward, closing the distance and, using the added leverage, flung Neo into the air, throwing her towards the ground. The menacing foe simply flipped out of the throw, landing back on two feet and charged Yang._

 _Yang stood her ground, preparing for a direct series of attacks but instead feeling shock as the smaller woman latched her umbrella into Yang's back and, using the momentum from her charge, climbed her way up the blonde's back. She grabbed Yang's outstretched arm and flipped off of her back, hurling Yang towards the top of the train. Yang saw all this in a blur of pink and brown as she found herself flying at the cold metal top of the train. She closed her eyes as she felt the impact…_

* * *

Yang woke with a start in Professor Port's class. Luckily no one around her noticed as everyone else was in a similar state of consciousness as the plump man drawled on with his long-winded story about some past hunt. A bead of sweat crawled its way down Yang's forehead as she went to wipe it off, pausing as she saw her hand shaking uncontrollably. The blonde hastily put it back under her desk trying to breathe deeply to calm herself.

Blake looked up from the notebook that she had been doodling in, noticing the shaken look in her partner's eyes. Instantly filled with concern Blake reached out a hand to Yang. The faunus' fingers barely grazed her friend's shoulders before another hand shot up and grabbed her wrist. Amber eyes stared into violet as Yang slowly came to the realization of what had just happened.

"I'm so sorry," Yang said under her breath, releasing Blake's wrist and slowly turning back to stare down at her notebook.

Blake dismissed the apology knowing full well how heightened people's reactions could be when in a state of vulnerability. "What's wrong Yang?"

Yang merely shook her head taking a few deep breaths before putting on a halfhearted smile. "It's nothing," she huffed, shrugging her shoulders, "Just a bad dream is all."

"You and I both know that's a load of bull Yang," Blake said, glaring at the blonde. "You've been acting very strange these past few days and Ruby says you've been muttering in your sleep."

Yang dropped the false smile, instead choosing to stare at the unused notebook laying on in front of her. Moments passed as Yang slowly collected herself. "I'm just trying to get through something," she sighed, absent mindedly rubbing the back of her head.

Blake could see the pain in her partner's eyes. The raven haired faunus racked her brain, trying to think back through the past week for what could possibly be causing so much distress. Anything that could rattle someone as strong Yang had to be massive. "You can tell me, we're all here…"

"Girls," a voice boomed from the front of the room as both the huntresses jumped in their seats "Is there something you would like to add for the benefit of the class,". Professor Port looked up at the two expectedly as both Blake and Yang's faces melted with guilt.

"Sorry professor," Blake apologized immediately while Yang just shot the elder man one of her trademark smiles.

The man simply huffed, his mustache curling with a slight smile. "Well pay attention, this information could save your lives one of these days," Port stated with an air of bravado.

"Doubt it," Yang muttered under her breath as their greying teacher launched back into his story as though nothing had happened. Yang sat back in her seat with a sigh as she looked around. After the brief moment of excitement everyone just slipped back into their individual comas. Everyone save for the members of her own team who were now looking at her with concern. Weiss' head was tilted to the side and Ruby had her silver eyes in full on puppy mode. She didn't want to have to explain herself to them. This was something that she had to deal with on her own.

Blake's hand rested back on Yang's arm, as the blonde turned to look at her. The amber eyes made it clear that this was not over and Yang went back to staring at the paper in front of her, trying to get her mind to match the emptiness in front of her.

A few minutes passed with no change in the general atmosphere of the classroom. Yang had started another staring contest with the ceiling and the rest of the members of team RWBY were all back to their usual class time mannerisms.

The sound of a boxing ring bell rang throughout the din of the room as everyone snapped up, looking around for the source of the disturbance. Yang just cursed her cluttered mind as she realized that she had forgotten to silence the scroll currently sitting in her bag. She felt a good number of eyes on her as she fished the device out of her bag and quickly corrected her mistake. Looking up confirmed her fears as half the class were glancing back at her. One glare from the blonde sent all of them snapping back to the front of the class

"Miss Xiao Long," came an all too familiar voice, "Please see me after class for the details of the new essay on Nevermore tactics and weaknesses you will be writing."

"Yes sir," Yang mumbled as Port continued to stare up at her. He simply huffed and, without a second thought, launched back into his story.

Yang cursed under her breath, looking at her scroll to see who she was going to be hunting down after classes were done for the day. Her irritation only increased as she saw that the offending number was unknown. It wasn't until she opened the message that all her previous anger vanished in an instant.

" _Hey Blondie, it's Junior. There's a girl sitting in the club that matches the description that you gave me the other night. Pink and brown colors, and silent as all hell. Wouldn't of noticed her if she hadn't been the only one here. Rarely get anyone here this early 'cept for the oddballs."_

Yang's heart sored with triumph at the prospect of a rematch. She quickly typed a response, telling the club owner that she would be there as soon as possible. Yang looked up at the clock, seriously considering just bolting then and there. The thought was dismissed almost as soon as it was created when she saw that there was only a few minutes left. She didn't want to risk further testing the patience of Port and getting a more extensive punishment. Yang knew that she was going to be rather busy tonight as is.

* * *

Horns blared throughout the streets as a yellow blur flew passed the aggravatingly slow vehicles on its way to Junior's club. Yang's heart was soaring at the prospect of seeing the girl who humiliated her so thoroughly during their last encounter, but at the same time something inside of her was worried.

' _What if I can't do it'_ she thought to herself as Bumblebee zoomed its way towards her final destination. Yang shook off the doubt knowing that that kind of thinking was just going to end up hindering her in the impending brawl. She put on her game face as she approached the club, the pounding beats signifying that events were in full swing inside the building. ' _Sure hope Junior has gotten a better insurance policy since last time_ '.

Tires squeaked to a halt in front of double doors as Yang removed her helmet and shook out her hair. She looked towards the entrance with the nagging little doubt creeping back into her head. Slowly that nagging doubt creeped forward, infecting the rest of her brain until every instinct inside of her was screaming at her to hop back on her bike and run. Unfortunately, pride won over instinct that day and Yang took the first step towards the club, cracking her knuckles in an attempt to strengthen her resolve.

The doors slammed opened as the bouncer on duty looked up with a falling heart. Red eyes stared him down, daring him to even speak to her. The bouncer slammed his fist on the button that opened the larger double doors leading to the main room, quickly sidestepping to the corner as the blonde marched her way through. The man could feel the heat emanating off her and swore that he wasn't opening those doors no matter how much screaming he heard.

Yang took in every corner of the club, looking for a flash of pink or the odd umbrella amongst the sea of people currently residing inside the room. Red and white light flashed around the room making it slightly harder for her to find the prey she so desired. Eventually giving up her search she marched her way over to the bar, instead scanning for the short black beard and possible red sunglasses of her informant.

Junior's sixth sense kicked in as he felt the atmosphere in the club change slightly. Looking up from the far side of the bar he saw in the flashing light a pair of fiery red eyes and golden hair marching towards him. He took a deep breath as he prepared himself for the worst. The bar owner had managed to get a majority of his security staff on duty tonight but he had a sinking feeling the increased presence would just further aggravate the girl.

The tall club owner straightened his tie as Yang stomped up to the bar. "Blondie, good to see…"

A fist slammed down on the bar, cutting Junior off from his typical greeting and sending several drinks spilling over. When the owners looked up to yell at the perpetrator they quickly shrank back at the shear presence in front of them. "Where?" It was a demand as much a question and Junior quickly pointed to a table in one of the enclaves of the club, completely shrouded in shadows. Yang quickly searched the darkness before stopping. She could feel the piercing glare on her as she slowly turned her head to the pink and brown resting in the darkness. Even from here she could see the small cocky smile.

Junior saw the signs in front of him and his heart fell as what he realized was inevitable the minute he texted the blonde came to happen. "Now Blondie, before things get too heavy," he started in a futile attempt to get Yang to listen to reason.

Unfortunately for him Yang's current state of anger and determination at seeing the source of her emotional state these past few weeks blocked out all reason and sound from around her. The music pounding through the club melted to a dim thud as Yang marched forward through the dance floor, pushing the patrons of the club out of her way. Seeing all of this, some of the newer security men stepped forward to intercept the blonde.

Junior had only bowled a few times before this moment but the metaphor still sprang forth in his head as he witnessed his men fly through the sky and land to the club floor. Some of the more lucid club goers quickly ran to escape the carnage, jamming up in the exit as the doorman was reluctant to allow the door to open. Filing away the future firing for later, Junior looked back to the blonde as she reached the table.

Yang scowled across the table at the silent woman in front of her, slowly working up a frenzy as Neo continued just to smile at the blonde brute. The acrobat could see the fury working up inside of her old play thing, at the same time noting the small glint of what Neo recognized as fear.

The smile only grew as she opened her mouth. "I've been looking forward to seeing you again."

Yang was momentarily taken aback at the small controlled sound that had just come from in front of her, her eyes momentarily going back to their normal deep violet. She had never heard Neo make a sound before even during their fights. There was something about the way she spoke those few words though that completely unnerved Yang. She could feel her heart pounding in her throat as the smaller woman sat in front of her with what Yang could only identify as pure glee in her voice.

It only took Neo sitting back in her chair, cocking her head to one side and smiling deeper for Yang to snap out of the surprise. The red sprang back into the blonde's eyes as she slammed both of her fists down onto the table in between them.

The small metal disk flew end over end into the air before finally slamming down onto the dance floor behind Yang. What was left of the club goers scattered as Junior groaned and retrieved his newly repaired bat from under the bar, his two twins looking to him for orders. He just shook his head as he threw his sunglasses on. Getting in the way would only serve to infuriate the blonde even further. He knew his best course of action was to hang back and hope that there wouldn't be too much damage.

Metallic clicks filled the club as Yang's twin bracelets transformed themselves into the Ember Celica, the action clicking back as the blonde drew back her fist. Planting a firm foot forward, Yang drove her fist down into the source of her fury. The space in front of her shattered to pieces as the image of Neo faded and the chair she had been sitting in took the full force of the shot.

Yang's heart skipped a beat as she looked wildly around for any sign of the multi-colored girl. A soft tap on the shoulder sent her whirling around to deliver another punch at whomever was behind her but once again she hit nothing but air as Neo nimbly jumped back, opening her umbrella and settling it on her shoulder. Neo brought her hand up and crooked her finger at Yang.

The blonde leaped forward, delivering blow after blow that would normally send her foes flying but a sickening feeling in her stomach told her that history was slowly repeating itself as Neo parried each strike with quick flicks of her wrist. Neo flipped back as Yang's fist slammed down into the floor, creating a crater where the acrobat once stood.

Yang quickly swung her other fist up, firing a ranged blast at Neo. The smile that grew on Yang as she saw the space where the girl stood engulf in flames quickly evaporated as Neo simply spun around, absorbing the entire shot against the umbrella canopy.

The blonde mane of hair exploded with flames that matched the fury of the fighter as Yang hurled herself forward with reckless abandonment. Neo grabbed the fist that came flying towards her and used the momentum of the charging brute to leap into the air, briefly balancing herself by one hand on Yang's head before clenching her fist and leaping off.

Landing lightly on her feet, Neo stood up holding in her closed fist a few strands of gold. Yang took in the entire sight and felt a primal scream erupt from her throat as the air around her exploded with energy. Neo giggled at the sight of the child in front of her and tucked away her new trophy into her breast pocket, topping the whole ordeal with an overexaggerated patting of the fabric over the trinket.

The Ember Celica exploded behind Yang as she rocketed forward at little witch. Neo shook her head at the endeavor before quickly sidestepping Yang and grabbing the outstretched arm once again. Using the off balanced movement of the blonde Neo swung the girl around, spinning like a ballerina as she hurled Yang at the nearest pillar.

Yang felt a strange sense of déjà vu as she watched the smaller woman shrink away from her before feeling a large impact and then nothing.

The dust across the dance floor settled as Neo straightened herself. The woman stretched, her arms raised into the air as she walked slowly towards the unconscious blonde. Walking around the blonde so as to avoid the sprawling heaps of golden hair, she looked down with a sense of pity. Neo thought to herself what she should do next. It was a shame to waste such looks and talent and she wasn't necessarily in the way anymore unlike the train. Neo closed her umbrella, latching it onto her belt as she knelt down to shift the hair out of the sleeping blonde's face. Letting her hand slide across Yang's cheek she stood up. ' _There is always more fun to be had, and big brother Torchwick would always love a new source of information'_ she thought to herself, imagining the joy it would bring to the man that had taken her under his wing.

Grabbing a hold of the blonde's arm, Neo slowly dragged her to the exit of the club grimacing at the amount of dead weight. _'So much easier when they are conscious'._

"Now hold on there," came a deep voice from across the dance floor. Neo looked to her right and saw the owner of the club walking towards her, shouldering a missile launcher. The two cute twins that flanked him fanned to either side as Neo continued to drag Yang. "You've had your fun now just drop the girl, leave the club and no one else will get hurt," the man spoke with an air of authority. Neo laughed. Even through all the macho man speak Neo could hear the small little signs of a bluff. She had heard of the previous times her blonde had been to the club. This man couldn't stop her if he wanted to.

The twin in the red dress stepped in front of her causing Neo to pause momentarily before she simply stepped around her. The twin looked at her incredulously as she kept pace behind the little thing that had just torn up her precious boss' club. Junior marched forward, the rocket launcher on his back slowly transforming back into its bat configuration. "I SAID STOP!" Junior boomed, bringing the bat back before swinging it forward. He would not be disrespected by two separate girls in his club.

For the second time that night, the image of Neo shattered along with the unconscious Yang she had in tow. Junior stumbled at the lack of resistance his weapon had just met, managing to catch himself before wildly looking around. There was no trace of the pink and brown devil or Blondie save for a few strands of golden hair.

* * *

 **A/N: Hope you are enjoying. Curious where I'm going to take this but it should be fun. Once again please review if you can for any tips you have for a first time fanfic writer. I will update as soon as I have the time around my school schedule.**

 **PS: This story is meant to be kind of a companion to Volume 3 meaning I'm going to try not to mess with canon story too much unless I have to so SPOILER WARNING FOR FUTURE CHAPTERS IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THROUGH VOLUME 3 OF RWBY YET. That being said once I reach the events of Volume 4 I should have a lot more liberties and as such have a lot more plans.**

 **PSS I obviously do not own RWBY and the masterpiece that is the show belongs to Roosterteeth**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

' _Worst. Hangover. Ever.'_

Yang's entire world was a dark and murky mess, not aided by the current throbbing pang along her spine, capping at the back of her head. She tried to remember the events of her previous night but was mentally blocked by the slow rush of blood to her brain. _'Weirdest hangover ever'_ she revised, the shear thought bringing a new bout of throbbing pain. Something clicked in Yang's head, a little bell telling her that all was not as it was supposed to be.

 _A flash of pink, pounding music, a fist filled with gold._ As she honed in on the tiny bell in her mind flashes of memories came back to her. Yang's heart dropped as she remembered more of the events of the previous few hours. The blonde's eyes opened only to be met with absolute black all around her.

 _'Where am I?!'_ Yang focused in on her surroundings and felt something rough wrapped around her torso with a similar feeling around her hands. Her wrists were secured firmly behind her without the usual metallic comfort of her trusty gauntlets. Reaching out with her fingers only provided her a bar of colder metal. Shifting herself around, she could feel that she was propped on a cold metal chair unlike the normal bar stools at Junior's club.

' _Got it, not at the club anymore'_ She continued to shift and wiggle, trying to free herself from the thick rope keeping her tied to the chair. With one giant heave, she felt the chair slowly tip out from under her. The crash of metal on stone echoed around the room as a burning pang shot its way through Yang's system originating from the shoulder that had just made friends with the cold cement floor.

Yang groaned as the pain compounded on top of the now aggravated throbbing in her head and back. The blonde breathed deeply, letting the tension out of her body in a futile attempt at trying to ease her injuries. As she did this she could hear a soft giggling originating from behind her. Yang stopped her breathing, quickly trying to locate the odd, somewhat eerie noise.

Blinding white filled her vision. Forcing her eyes closed at the sudden burning brightness, Yang held back the urge to throw up as her head seared with pain. Letting out a growl, she renewed her struggles if only to try and bring up her hands to cover her eyes.

"It seems you've been met with a terrible fate," a voice sang quietly from behind the blonde. Her head flooded with thought as she recognized the small voice. Before she could react, a strong hand had grabbed the chair and her injured shoulder, carefully pulling the bruiser upright. Yang grimaced at the renewed throbbing in her shoulder as she felt someone kneel next to her to examine the injury.

Soft fingers ran across her shoulder as the much closer voice hummed a slight air of concern. "Don't worry," the voice attempted to reassure her, "it'll just be a bruise." Heels clicked across the floor as the presence walked its way in front of Yang. She resisted opening her eyes, not wanting to confirm the fear boiling inside of her.

Yang felt her head lift slightly as a finger pressed against the bottom of her chin sending goosebumps cascading down her arms. "Now, now," the small voice cooed at her, "it's time to face down your demon's love."

Yang slowly opened her eyes only to be met with a similar set framed in pink and brown looking at her. A smile crept its way across the face as the girl in front of her slowly stood back to her full height. Neo continued to maintain the soft smile on her face as she saw the blonde in front of her flick her eyes around the room. The two woman sat within a small concrete room, their bright color schemes clashing with the dull grey walls surrounding them on all four sides. Another chair sat in the corner as Neo stood with her back to the only metal exit.

"Don't worry, I don't plan on hurting you any further today," the soft voice sighed as she saw the glimmers of fear in the pools of violet. Yang's eyes snapped back to the multicolored pair as she huffed, trying to regain some semblance of confidence given the current situation.

"You'll forgive me if I don't believe you," Yang snapped back. She was shocked to see genuine hurt in the woman standing in front of her.

After a brief moment, Neo simply shrugged her shoulders in defeat. "Have it your way, I just have some questions and I'll let you go."

Violet turned to red as Yang glared into Neo's eyes, looking for any sign of deception but was just meet with a familiar air of cockiness staring back at her. Yang's nerves grew as not many people could withstand the blonde's fiery glare without flinching away from the sheer intensity. Even so Yang brought herself to her fullest height the current restraints would allow, preparing for whatever torture would come. Her resolve hardened as she made the decision that no matter what this little ice cream witch did, she would never reveal information about her friends.

"So, what do you like to do for fun?"

The question stunned Yang, the blonde expecting literally any other request for information from the seasoned criminal. "Come again?" Yang said, all thoughts of the situation around her slowly slipping away.

"What. Do you like. To do. For fun?" Neo said, enunciating the words very clearly so as to make it very apparent of what she wanted from the injured girl in front of her. "Aside from fighting of course, although you could probably use some more practice in that."

The violet came back as Yang's jaw dropped in a confused frown. Choosing not to acknowledge the little quip about her fighting Yang just sat back into the hard metal chair, her back throbbing at the sudden pressure.

"What is this a date?" she grimaced as Yang shifted into a more comfortable position. Neo let out a slight giggle as she pulled the other chair in the room behind her. The smaller girl sat gracefully, easing herself down and crossing one leg over the other while leaning back.

"Would it make the situation better if it was?"  
"Umm, no." Yang once again started glancing around the room, only this time trying to come up with a plan to escape. Neo knew this look, witnessing it many times in her past. After a moment of this the blonde set her eyes forward again, awaiting an explanation to the odd question.

"You fascinate me," Neo said simply as she shrugged once again, "no one usually looks for me after I meet them for the first time."

"You kinda kicked my ass and tried to kill me," Yang replied, looking back into the pair of mismatched eyes, "I don't tend to take that lightly." Her eyes turned red again as she looked for any signs of weakness in the smaller girl's gleaming stare. Instead of seeing apprehension or nervousness though, a familiar look of glee still existed in Neo's face.

"All the same, not a lot of people would come looking for a second round," Neo retorted, unphased by the light show going on in the blonde's eyes.

Yang jerked forward in an attempt to break the bonds holding her without any luck. "Let me go and we'll make it a third," she spat back. Another gleam of hurt shot its way across Neo's face at the blonde's retort.

"And it would end the same," Neo sighed, closing her eyes and breathing deeply before opening them again. Clasping her fingers together, she leaned forward resting her chin on the enclosed fingers, propping her elbows on her knees. "Soon I'll probably hold the record for amount of times someone has put you on your back."  
Neo's lips broke into a wicked smile as Yang came to the realization of what the smaller girl had just said. Taken aback at the teasing manner of her captor, Yang slowly cracked a smile of her own, maintaining her crimson glare.

"Only on the second date honey."

"There we go," the girl chuckled, smiling and settling back into her chair. "The legendary humor I've heard so much about."

"If you've heard so much about me, what's with all the questions then," Yang inquired, mirroring Neo's posture. She grimaced once again as the muscles in her back tensed up.

"Oh Yang," Neo sighed, "Any good criminal knows it's best to hear information from the source."

"Then why don't you untie me and we can have a proper slumber party We can gossip, paint our nails and talk about cute boys."

"Alas in my line of work that last part is in short supply," Neo laughed, relaxing even further back in her chair. "Maybe another day though."

Yang huffed, rolling her neck to try and relieve some of the stored tension. Neo noted the discomfort and for the first time during the entire session, a frown broke across her face. Yang stopped mid-roll, noticing the frown and examining the girl in front of her.

"What?" Yang asked, not out of concern but just as a way to break the silence.

Neo simply sighed before shrugging her shoulders. The silence continued as the multicolored criminal continued delving into her inner thoughts. Yang could not see any sign of where the smaller girl's thoughts were taking her as she maintained this uncomfortable silence. Unfortunately for the blonde, boredom soon overtook her.

"Great," Yang groaned, sarcasm seeping into her words, "back to the silent treatment, just like the good old days."

Neo looked up from the interesting bit of floor she had been staring at, barely acknowledging the words coming from the huntress in training. Another set of moments passed as she regained the all too familiar eye contact with Yang. The blonde stared back as she continued to think about what could possibly be on Neo's mind before boredom infected her once again.

"Listen, I like being eye fucked just as much as the next girl, but I have places to be and people to see so what do you really want here?"

Neo tilted her head slightly, considering what the blonde said with great scrutiny. She racked her brain looking for the right words to convey the true purpose of her bringing Yang all the way to this dingy room. The smaller girl let out a pent-up breath she didn't even realize she had been holding up until this point.

"As you can tell by this point in our little relationship I am a girl of few words…"

"Obviously."

Neo rolled her eyes, letting the small interruption slide. "Straight to the point," she muttered under her breath, the blonde barely catching onto the words. Yang straightened up, preparing herself for the interrogation she had been expecting this entire night.

"I don't meet many interesting people in my line of work, mostly just random thugs and grunts with little to no personality and enough ego to suffocate us all." Yang tilted her head slightly, confusion stepping in as she tried to imagine where in Remnant this conversation would be going.

"What about Torchwick, he seems like the epitome of good company," the blonde suggested, sarcasm once again creeping into her tone. Neo's eyes turned to steel at the little quip, something that Yang through years of experience with pushing buttons could not miss. "Ooh touched a nerve, have I?"

Neo softened her glare as she realized her momentary lapse in emotion. Fixing her cocky smile firmly back onto her face she once again shifted into her comfortable posture, one leg crossed over the other.

"Roman took me under his wings when no one else would," she explained, resting her hands in her lap.

"Ooh, do I sense romance in the air?"  
Neo once again rolled her eyes at the tease. "Try brother," she said wistfully, "once again not a lot of people come looking for me a second time and he not only did that but also offered me a purpose in life."

"You'll forgive me if my heart doesn't bleed for you," Yang retorted, all sense of teasing gone. This conversation was going nowhere in her mind and a mix of boredom and annoyance once again set itself inside the blonde's mind. Neo noted this change in attitude and decided she might as well cut all the tragedy out of the story and just say what she needed.

"What I am saying," Neo said, once again picking her words, "is that I get lonely sometimes." Yang faked a gasp of shock before setting her face back into its previously unimpressed look. Neo started getting annoyed herself, wondering if she had made a mistake. Even through all this though, she maintained her even manner. Letting out one last sigh she drew a small breath.

"I want a friend."

"Come again," the blonde said for the second time that night, wondering if she had simply misheard her captor.

"I would like to get to know you Yang," Neo implored in her measured tone, "and maybe one day I would very much like to call you friend.

The request hung in the air like a heavy mist collecting around the two girls. Neo searched Yang's eyes for any sign of what the blonde's answer might be. For once that entire evening, Yang's eyes were devoid of emotion. Moments passed agonizingly on as Neo waited for an answer. These moments turned to minutes as Yang just continued to stare at her captor.

Eventually Yang's eyes closed causing Neo to straighten up at the sudden change in the blonde's demeaner. When they eventually opened again, Neo swore she could see the devil glaring back at her.

"You have got to be joking me right now," Yang said through clenched teeth, the rage bubbling its way to the surface.

"I'm sorry," Neo said allowing a small glint of surprise to cross her face before her previous personality reasserted itself. She refused to back down from the intense glare the blonde was shooting at her.

"You attack my team, blow up my home and you have the nerve to ask me to be your friend."

Neo just shrugged and smiled, further infuriating the blonde in front of her. Yang strained against the restraints keeping her from attacking the cocky little witch.

"How about this for an answer," Yang snarled in a low tone. The bruiser clenched her fists behind her and tensed up all her muscles. With a sudden surge of fury Yang broke from her bonds, lunging towards her ever-vigilant captor.

"Can't blame a girl for trying," Neo sighed in disappointment as she seemingly pulled her umbrella out of nowhere. Opening the parasol up, she flourished it at the attacking blonde. Yang only saw the flash of pink as the umbrella streaked across her face.

* * *

Dog ears perked up as the member of the White Fang on prisoner duty turned towards the only occupied holding room. He knew that the strange silent female partner of Torchwick had gone in there to interrogate the blonde huntress that was brought into the safe house earlier. The faunus heard the sound of crashing metal and rushed towards the door, prepping his gun along the way. Before he could open it though the multicolored henchwoman walked out of the room, seemingly unharmed.

The girl looked at the man with a look of confusion as he stood there in an awkward mid-run. The faunus stood up straight regarding the smaller girl in front of him and seeing no signs of stress. "Is everything all right mam," he said, looking back at the holding cell that the pink and brown girl had just emerged from.

She simply shrugged, a look of boredom clear across her face as she walked past the man and out the door leading to the main area of the building. A shudder crept its way down his spine as he watched her go. The guard shook off the feeling as he resumed his mundane watch, wondering to himself if maybe he could request a change to his current position in the White Fang. Preferably one that took him far away from the witch.

* * *

Yang woke up in a haze, trying to think why her entire body hurt so bad. She quickly bolted upright, sending the blankets on her bed scattering to the floor as the memories of the previous night flooded back to her. She looked wildly around for any sign of the multicolored girl in the room but couldn't see her. Ruby and Weiss were still fast asleep in their beds and a slight breathing from below her told Yang that her feline partner was in the same state.

Quietly leaping down from her bed, she noticed that she was still wearing the same clothes she had donned when she left for the club. Yang squinted, her head continuing to throb as light greeted her through the window signifying that the sun was commencing with its own morning rituals.

Yang sat down in her desk chair, wondering to herself if everything she had just experienced had all been some horrible, messed up dream. Maybe she had just gotten a little too tipsy at the club and had come back only to climb straight into bed. It wouldn't have been the first time this happened.

Just as this conclusion settled itself she looked to her right where her golden bracelets lay in their usual space, reassuring her mind that everything was alright. Yang looked away to the rest of the room, preparing to stand up and start her day as a little bell went off in her mind. Quickly looking back at her gauntlets, she noticed a foreign piece of paper tucked under one of them. Hastily grabbing the small sheet up, she read what looked like a set of seven numbers with a small message written neatly at the bottom confirming her deepest fear.

 _ **In case you change your mind.**_

* * *

 **A/N Thank you all for reading. This was a hard chapter to write as I originally had other plans for how I wanted to take this story with some witty one-sided banter between Torchwick and Neo about Yang along with an epic fight seen with JNPR and RWBY vs Torchwick but I forgot one thing. Torchwick is actually in jail during all this and continuity is a bitch. Alas I came up with this little bit of banter between Yang and Neo to try and get things started. Once again please review if you can and thank you for reading.**

 **MorgorthII: Thanks for the support, I hope you continue to enjoy!**

 **Aqua X: Let me tell you why I am currently slamming my head against my desk. Before I wrote that chapter I actually watched the RWBY Yellow Trailer to get some inspiration for the fight scene between Neo and Yang. The same Yellow trailer that quite plainly displays how easy it is to shake off getting slammed through one of Junior's pillars. So the fact that I missed that is really aggravating to me. My only logical explanation for why Yang would get knocked out by it would be that her Aura was taxed by the end of the fight displayed in my chapter similar to how she was able to get knocked out by a simple hit to the top of a train when she had shown that she could be punched through solid concrete pillars in the underpass fight and get up to fight again. But once again that was an instance of short sightedness on my part.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry for the longer wait on this chapter. I was stricken with a sudden plague of homework and projects that demanded my attention. Fortunately for me my load has lightened significantly enough for me to write this chapter and hopefully the next one. Hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 4

 _Running._

 _That's all she could do at that moment. That's all she knew how to do. The little girl ran and ran along the barren city streets hoping that the men trailing behind her would just forget that she existed and go do something else with their meaningless lives. But alas they persisted. Every attempt at trying to get help had failed her. Every person she pled to took one glance at the disheveled features and ragged clothes and decided they had better things to do. The people who had offered to help her only did so as a means to get something out of her, something that she knew from the crooked smiles and harsh voices wouldn't end well for her._

 _And so she ran. Ran until the little girl was short of breath and just couldn't run any further. But every time she found a small darkened alley or barricaded store to hide in she would begin to hear their voices calling out to her. Telling her that no one was going to save her, and there was nowhere she could hide where they wouldn't find her. Even when she was able to muster enough energy to use her special little talent she could only avoid them for a few hours of blissful rest before one of their many eyes and ears found her and the chase began again._

 _All this because she had decided to talk. Use her words to retaliate. She had had enough of the constant abuse done on her by those who should have loved her. Unfortunately talking only caused more problems. She finally decided to run from the strife she had been suffering only to find that those people didn't need her around anymore. And now with the attack dogs set on the girl's scent she truly had nowhere left to go._

 _Turns out living a sheltered life had many drawbacks, the biggest one being that girl had never known anyone else she could trust. All the people she had ever met disregarded her as nothing more than an object taking up unnecessary space and she was taught from an early age not to bother people with her less than important words. The little girl had no idea who to go to let alone how to convince them to help her._

 _At the end of one particularly long evening the lumbering forms of her pursuers had followed her all the way to the lower parts of Vale. Thundering footsteps echoed through the abandoned streets, shadows thrown across the dark, looming buildings as the group passed by the odd still working street lamp. The little girl ran along, not bothering to yell for help and give away her position, knowing already that no one would respond to her plights._

 _A triumphant shout from behind her told the small girl that the stalkers had found their prey and she doubled her pace, hoping that they would be tired from the long day of chasing her. She heard the crashing footsteps slowly getting closer to her and felt her heart pound inside of her at the seemingly endless endurance of the predators. Quickly ducking into a small alley stretching out to her left she continued to blindly run, hoping to lose the men in the maze of roads and alleys that she had come to know over the weeks._

 _Unfortunately in her haste she had made a terrible mistake. Running down the enclosed pathway, she paid no attention to where she stepped. Kicked up debree and puddles of god only knows what echoed their disturbances across the stone walls around her, giving the pursuers a clear picture of where the little girl was running. They smiled, wicked discolored grins as they continued to follow, the sounds getting closer and closer with every twist and turn._

 _The girl looked behind her, hearing the heavy footfalls getting louder, completely missing the large brick wall that seemingly sprouted out of nowhere in front of her. Slamming into the hardened surface the girl recoiled backwards, clutching her head as it rang from the impact. When her vision finally cleared and her brain came into focus she realized she could hear heavy breathing behind her. Quickly turning around, the girl faced four large men. All of them were dressed in varying forms of filthy browns and dull greys, each possessing an unsettling look in their eyes as they slowly encircled their quarry._

 _The small girl backed up slowly, her eyes darting everywhere for some sort of escape from her unfortunate fate. Her back hit the cold brick as her heart dropped. A man in a tattered black ball cap stepped away from his hunting pack and towards the girl, gesturing with his arms to the surrounding buildings._

 _"Nowhere left to run love," the man said in a gravely tone. The man smiled in what he must have thought was a comforting way, somewhat counteracted by the large amount of missing or damaged teeth and breath that even from her backed up position made the girl gag. "Come quietly and we promise to make it as quick and painless as possible."_

 _"Speak for yourself," one of the men cackled, rubbing his grimy hands together and looking at the small girl with an unsettling hunger in his eyes. The leading man shot him a murderous look before returning his attention to the girl in front of him. The look of fear, clearly evident on the girl's face, only served to fuel the man's confidence as he continued to edge forward towards her._

 _The girl pressed herself against the wall in a futile attempt to stay out of the man's reach but the rotten stench only got closer. The man got within arm's reach of her as he continued to study the mismatched eyes. He stopped, looking at the girl and waited for her to make any indication on what she was going to do next his grin slowly fading from his face._

 _"Well," the man scowled, "what will it be bitch?" The man grew quickly impatient at the continued lack of response. He shot out his hand, intending to wrap itself around the girl's throat._

 _The large, meaty fingers closed around her neck and the image in front of him shattered like glass, causing the man to spring back in surprise. The other three men made various shouts and curses of frustration as they remembered their prey's little trick, each one quickly looking around to find the girl. One of them looked up, noticing a small figure scurrying and jumping its way up the adjacent building. Shouting for his fellow packmates, the small girl looked down to see the men all staring up at her. The girl's heart quickened at her discovery and she doubled her pace, quickly shooting her way through the nearest open window._

 _"Get her!" the thug with the broken smile shouted as the men raced back through the alley to find the entrance to the building._

 _The girl sprang to her feet, quickly looking around to gage the relative safety of her new hiding space. The small room she stood in was rather sparse on decor, only possessing a small desk cluttered with various blueprints and other papers along with a highbacked desk chair and one unlit lamp. Three of the walls surrounding her were bare and scarred with holes of various size, each colored a rather bland shade of beige. The last wall opposite the small desk was covered in pictures and charts. When the girl examined these closer she noticed the pictures of various banks and shops that littered Vale, each with different markings and words suggesting entryways and staff._

 _The door next to her slammed open as a man in his late teens to early twenties marched in brandishing a black and red curved cane. The girl backed into the corner, trying to make herself as small as possible while looking at her newest problem. The man glanced around finally noticing the frightened woman standing in the corner of his office. Turning to face her, he regarded her with a look of confusion and bewilderment at the small girl's attempts at remaining unnoticed._

 _"You're going to have to try a lot harder than that," he said with a sarcastic air to his voice, "I would personally start with the lovely color scheme you have going for you". The girl shrunk further into the corner and the man just sighed. "Shh shh shh shh, calm down I'm not going to hurt you."_

 _The man extended one hand towards the girl in an attempt to comfort her but she just scurried away from it continuing to examine him. The man carried himself with an air of confidence, leaning against his cane. He wore a black shirt and pants with a grey scarf tied around his neck, his fiery orange hair covering one of his piercing green eyes. He just sighed again, closing his eyes in mild frustration at the intruder._

 _"Listen ice cream, I've got a small problem here," the man said in calm voice staring back at the multicolored girl in front of him, "You see, I've got a little girl in front of me that looks like she's taken one too many trips through hell and while I'm trying to be angry that she just broke into my office, I can't help but feel that we have bigger issues on hand." The man set his cane against the wall next to the door and strode over to close the open window the girl had just come through. The girl, seeing one of her escape routes close, slowly edged her way to the door in an attempt to slink out while the man was distracted. Alas the man turned around to see this and just rolled his eyes at the girl's feeble attempt._

 _"Listen pipsqueak, if you want to leave I'm not going to stop you. You just look like you could use a nap and I'm clearly not doing anything important here," the man said motioning towards the clutter of pictures on the wall. The smile that graced his face was easy and genuine unlike her pursuers yet the small girl could not bring herself to trust anyone right now. She continued to edge her way towards the door, shaking her head at the man's offer._

 _The man just sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Have it your-"_

 _His words were interrupted by a loud pounding on the apartment door followed by the crashing sound of broken wood. "Door's open!" the orange haired man called, groaning in exasperation at the newest intruders as heavy footsteps pounded their way towards the office._

 _"Looks like we have more company ice cream," the man said looking back at the girl. He paused at the look of absolute terror on her face and the dots connected in his head. "Oooh, I see now," he said looking back towards the office door as the footfalls got closer._

 _Straightening himself up, the man grabbed his cane from its resting place and stepped outside. "Be right back," he said in a business-like tone, slowly closing the door behind him._

 _"Hello boys, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit," the small girl heard, muffled through the now closed door. Terror froze her in place as she recognized another gravelly voice start speaking._

 _"Me and my buddies here are looking for a friend of ours, she got lost and we're very concerned for her safety."_

 _"Yes I can see that you are worried for her, as my poor door can attest to," her host said back with an air of theatrics. "Unfortunately, you have come to the wrong place."  
"You sure about that, we have it on good authority that she may have slinked her way into your home."_

 _"Trust me I think I would know if a girl was in my apartment. Kinda hard to miss the pink hair on that one."_

 _"I never said what color her hair was."_

 _"… well crap"_

 _A moment of silence filled the air before an explosion rang out, causing the girl to jump. Groans and shouts echoed through the small apartment followed by a couple more explosions and then the silence was back._

 _After a few minutes where the girl continued to collect her energy for another use of her special talent the door opened slowly. Orange hair poked its way into the entryway as the man looked around and saw the small girl still rooted to the spot he had left her in. The man sighed and scooted his way inside without opening the door any further. Quickly closing the door behind him he patted his hands together and shot her a winning smile._

 _"It's your lucky day ice cream," the man announced, "turns out I will be needing to move due to some unfortunate damage to my apartment and I'll be needing some assistance. The pay won't be good and I'll probably make you do most of the work but hey it's better than the situation you seem to have found yourself in."_

 _The man just continued to smile as the girl just looked at him, fear melting away to confusion at the man's words. Her eyes flicked to the door, wondering what the hell just happened out there._

 _"You won't have to worry about your friends anymore, I made sure they understood the situation quite clearly," the man reassured her, noticing the glance. The girl's eyes widened as she grasped the meaning of these new words. "So what do you say? I can teach you everything I know including how to do what I do best. Lie, steal, cheat and, most importantly, survive."_

 _The man could see the gears spinning away in the small girl's head as she considered his offer. After a few minutes where they just continued to stare at each other the girl finally straightened up and nodded, putting on the first smile that she had experienced in months. The man's grin split across his face as he extended his arm to her. The girl extended her own and shook her new partner's hand._

 _"Roman Torchwick."_

 _"…Neopolitan"_

* * *

A loud crash tore Neo out of her trip down memory lane as she looked down from her perch on top of a couple of Schnee Dust Company shipping crates. The members of the White Fang scurried around her, some rushing towards the upended crate of dust that one mouse eared member had just managed to drop on the ground. Neo just rolled her eyes as the faunus hurried to clean up the volatile red powder before it exploded and caused a much bigger problem.

Why Roman had decided to side with these people still baffled her. They had gotten along just fine before this with their typical thieving and looting. She didn't care how big of a payout Roman's master plan was coming to, none of it was worth all this headache. A pang shot through her heart at the thought of her only friend as she remembered more of the good times they had together. Now he was locked up in jail and while it was all per the plan, it still left her in charge of coordinating their new allies and making sure none of the progress they had been making fell apart.

She continued to watch the amateurs scurry to clean up the impending catastrophe, taking bets with herself on how long it would take before the mess exploded and she would have to clean up and make a few examples. She recalled several situations in the past of all the times she would have to save Roman when he had overstepped on something he should never have touched. Although it always made her wonder why she allowed him to continue calling the shots, the memories still gave her a small amount of comfort at the purpose these past few years had given her.

Smiling to herself, Neo continued to reflect on the harsh differences in her fortune. Everything changed that faithful day, all because she had chosen that alley to run down, and that window to scurry through in her attempts to survive. And now because a little girl had fallen upon their little operation in the southeast and Roman had decided to jump the gun not for the first time in their partnership, she was left alone to clean up the mess.

Alone.

Another twinge shot through her heart at the thought of the general lack of company she had. Sure Emerald checked up on her from time to time but the green haired woman was always too wrapped up in her own little self-righteous plan to actually be considered anything more than a temporary ally.

That left the plethora of gang members that currently resided under her ever-watchful eye. Yeah she could try and strike up a conversation with any of them but every time she looked around none of them stuck out to her. They were all just so dull and typical and in layman's terms, uninteresting. All "We'll get those humans" and "They won't know what hit them". These faunus were just more amateurs, wrapped up in something way too big for their insignificant existences.

Neo groaned, laying back down across the storage container and looking up into the sky. _'Why is everything so boring'_ she thought to herself as she considered taking a walk around the warehouse to try in vain to find something interesting to keep herself occupied with.

She quickly struck this idea down, recalling the other strolls and encounters she had experienced with the members of the White Fang. It was always the same, a salute here, a hurried scuttling out of the way there. All of them wearing the same apprehensive and fearful look under their masks, almost like they all thought she would strike out at them if they didn't get out of her way. She had considered doing so after the last few of these little interactions but always repressed the urge for the sake of the mission at hand.

Neo just sighed, resigning herself to just laying on her crate and letting her mind run in circles. She recalled the last exciting day she had as a flash of gold flew through Neo's mind and she closed her eyes at the bittersweet memory.

 _'Yang Xiao Long'_ she thought to herself, a smile creeping across Neo's face as the memories of the blonde bruiser ran through. ' _Now there was someone worth talking to.'_ The girl fascinated the small criminal. Simple minded when it came to how she approached every problem and yet deceptively complex in her actions. A giant question mark that Neo wanted with all her heart to get to know.

It showed in her choice of missions that Neo decided venture on. Whenever Roman needed someone to spy on the team of huntresses in training that for some strange reason caused him so much trouble, Neo jumped at the opportunity. At first it was just to get to know her future playthings but as she continued to watch their every move she grew to respect the jovial blonde. Whether it was in the loving way she interacted with her sister, something Neo desperately missed in her own childhood, or just the way she went about her day. Head first and with no grand plan in mind. Just a continuous craving for the next adventure that Yang knew was around the next corner.

Neo cursed the sense of envy she was now feeling, recalling the way the blonde had tossed away her offer of friendship. The criminal still couldn't blame the blonde for her reactions that day. Everything Neo had been working towards for the past few months did appose everything Yang stood for and their first conversation may have not been in the most beneficial of conditions.

And now with Roman absent, she couldn't continue her watches on team RWBY and see if the blonde was pondering her still standing offer. More than once Neo had to resist the urge to just spring up and go for a walk to Beacon. She knew no one would know she was missing, and no one in turn would even try to come looking for her. Unfortunately that was what kept Neo firmly planted in the current operations. None of these White Fang were to be trusted on their own with everything at stake. Even leaving for the club that one faithful night had cost one of the mech's that one stupid ram faunus decided to take for a joyride and crashed into the nearby ocean.

Alas, Neo just could not shake the thoughts of the blonde out of her system. She would just have spend her time figuring out a new plan of attack to win Yang over until something allowed Neo to talk to her again. It was just like Roman had taught Neo all those years ago. If you truly want something, then it is up to you to pull out every trick in the book to make it yours.

* * *

 **A/N: Well there you have it. I decided to take this chapter to flesh out my version of Neo's backstory that may or may not crop up in further chapters. I find Neo so much fun because of the general blankish slate that she is. My next chapter should be more focused on how Yang is dealing with this whole debacle so stay tuned. Hope you all enjoyed and as per usual, please review if you can.**

 **Aqua X: Glad you're continuing to enjoy the story. I always like it myself when I see some of the running jokes from the show bleed into some of the fics I read so I decided to try my hand at it myself. Always appreciate the analysis on the chapter and I hope you continue to stay awesome.**

 **abrahamgreat1: HOW DARE YOU DISLIKE THE GLORY THAT IS YANG XIAO LONG! PREPARE TO DIE!... just kidding.** **Welcome to my little corner of RWBYdom and I'm glad that you appreciate the direction I'm taking this. I like to think Neo and Yang's relationship pretty much revolves around the Yin and Yang (lol puns) of their fighting styles and I'm hoping to give Yang a little more arc through this fic. Hopefully I can give our favorite blonde brawler a better light to shine under.**

 **-Thank you kindly**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"I'm worried about her."

"She seems alright to me."

"This is the second time maintenance has had to patch a hole in our wall this week."

"We all just have a lot of pent up energy, just let her relax."

"She's spent the last five hours in the gym and the school is starting to run out of punching bags."

"She's fine, probably just trying to get some extra training in before the tournament."

"Training is one thing, but she is going to run herself into the ground."

"Alright maybe you're on to something there. What do you think Ruby?"

The members of team RWBY minus one Yang Xiao Long sat around their dorm room in various forms of worry for their blonde friend. Weiss looked up from her work she insisted was vital that she get done despite the fact that classes were postponed in lieu of the upcoming tournament. She rested her eyes on their team leader currently burning a rut in the floor as she paced back and forth.

Weiss just rolled her eyes at the lack of response from Ruby and went back to her work. This had been the cycle that the partial team had found themselves in ever since roughly five hours ago. Yang had stormed out in a fit of rage after Weiss caught her, not for the first time, having a hushed conversation with the ceiling. The heiress only caught a few words of this, something about nerves and ice cream. Not wanting to be left in the dark and unable to concentrate, Weiss had asked Yang what in the world of Remnant she was muttering about.

The lack of tact in the ice queen had apparently sent the blonde brawler over the edge and after a brief shouting match, Yang stormed out of the room, not before sending her fist through the wall and grabbing a bag that she had packed next to the door. Blake was the first of the huntresses to shake off the shock of the encounter and ran off after her only to come back a few minutes later to report that Yang had gone back to the gym to "train".

Weiss had dismissed the matter entirely and had gone back to her work, relishing in the now quiet room she found herself in. That lasted all of a few more minutes before Ruby had begun her pacing in front of the door. She didn't even seem to notice that she was doing it, aggravating rose petals slowly flying their way on top of Weiss' books and into her snow-white hair. After telling the red warrior to stop four separate times to no avail, Weiss just gave up and tried to plow through the work in front of her.

Blake was not so easily distracted as she sat across her bed with her favorite "romance novel". Try as the raven haired faunus might, she could not help her eyes from drifting up and towards the fist sized hole in the wall that was a clear reminder of the distress her partner was in. Ever since that morning that the team had woken to find Yang sitting paralyzed in a cold sweat, Blake had known that her worries were true. She scolded herself once again for not chasing after Yang when she rushed out of Port's class almost a week ago.

Blake had tried to get Yang to confide in her every opportunity she had but the girl was as stubborn as she was confident. Every attempt always ended in either a dazzling half-smile and a joke about the pressure of the upcoming tournament, or more recently, a huffed release of anger followed by a need to be alone. Something was definitely wearing on her friend and Blake couldn't stand it.

She considered what the best way to confront Yang would be and kept drawing up blanks. She didn't think the direct, confrontational way Yang had used on the feline girl that day before the dance would work in her favor as that would just end up with more anger followed by further punishment on the walls of Beacon. Sighing, Blake gave up on trying to read as another rose petal drifted down onto the pages. She closed the pages and set her book down, careful to hide it under her covers so as not to attract the curiosity of the younger member of the team. Leaning her head back, Blake stared at the bottom of Yang's bed continuing to let her mind run around the problem at hand.

Ruby finally looked up from the floor when she heard the soft closing of Blake's book. While Blake's understanding of Yang's current mental discomfort stemmed from the evidence at hand, Ruby just knew in her heart that something was up. She had only ever seen her sister drift from her motherly demeaner a few times and none of them had been good. The worst of these had been when they both were still very young when Yang had gone on a foolish mission with Ruby in tow to find her mother. Both of the sisters would have been dead had it not been for the timely arrival of their uncle Qrow.

Ever since that instance Ruby had been on the lookout for any signs that her sister was going down a similar dark path. And now the situation at hand was textbook self-destructive Yang and this had Ruby worried. She had to calm her sister down and get to the bottom of what troubled Yang, but nothing clued Ruby into what might be the problem. So Ruby unconsciously paced, racking her brain's stored memories of the past week. Starting from the day she had woken to see Yang unusually already awake and sitting at her desk. The younger sister's heart dropped at the blank stare her sister had worn, fear clearly etched across the blonde's features.

Throughout that day, Ruby had watched her sister and saw similar signs of distress from the way she ignored her friends attempts at conversation to not eating anything that entire day. When Ruby had suggested the team watch one of Yang's favorite garbage action flicks later that night, Yang just told the others to go on without her and crawled into bed. Over the next few days Yang noticed her sister's ever present watch and slowly came back to the confident, loving figure that Ruby knew. Unfortunately for the blonde her sister was not so easily deceived as she noticed the smiles falling away from her face and the briefs bouts of anger that seemed easier to trigger as the days wore on.

Ruby continued to think about all the possible signs that pointed towards the ever-looming problem but try as she might she just couldn't see what could have changed. Ruby finally stopped her pacing and, with a groan of frustration, walked through the petal covered floor and collapsed on Weiss' bed, much to the heiress' displeasure.

Blake rolled her eyes as Weiss got up to scold the young team leader about personal space and other nonsensical things. She once again looked towards the hole in the wall, a sharp pang piercing through her heart as she remembered the source of the tension in the room. The huntress frowned as she continued to think of her partner, worry slowly building inside of her until finally she couldn't sit still any longer.

"I'm going to go for a walk," Blake announced to the room, getting up from her bed and stretching. Weiss turned around and Ruby lifted her head from the bed with a question etched across her face.

"Need some company?" Weiss asked her teammate, noticing the feline's cat ears twitch under her bow as they always did when Weiss' teammate was worried about something. Blake noticed the snowy girl's eyes dart to her ears and inwardly cursed as she forced them still.

"Thank you but that won't be necessary," Blake responded, smiling at the comfort that Weiss was trying to provide. Weiss just shrugged her shoulders and sat back down at her desk, continuing to read her notes and review anything the team might need to know.

Ruby on the other hand was not so easily comforted and looked at Blake with worry filling the girl's silver eyes. Not only was her own sister in trouble but now another member of her team seemed down and Ruby remained at a loss on what she could do. She felt a sense of helplessness at her continued inability to be the leader her team truly deserved.

Blake noticed all this play out across the silver eyes and hurried to try and comfort the small girl, knowing the restlessness that was brewing inside of her. "Don't worry, I just need some fresh air," Blake smiled, trying to convey that this wasn't all the smaller girl's fault. Ruby took a moment to think before nodding with a small smile of her own.

"Alright, you know where to find us if you need us," the red themed girl said, laying her head back down onto Weiss' bed and falling back into her thoughts. Blake just nodded and walked towards the exit, maintaining her smile until the moment she closed the door behind her. Letting out a long-held breath she straightened herself up and slowly started making her way to the school gym to hopefully end all the strife currently plaguing team RWBY.

* * *

 _A flash of pink_

 _ ***SMACK***_

 _A small, knowing smile_

 _ ***THUD***_

 _Friends?_

 ***** _ **SLAM!***_

A roar erupted from the Beacon Gym's only inhabitant as the brawler slammed her fist into the punching bag. The leather surrounding the soft interiors gave one last futile effort before giving to the oncoming fist and tearing asunder, spilling the dense foam across the floor. The contents joined the numerous other remains of previous unfortunate victims of the blonde's wrath.

Yang stood, panting as her eyes calmed to their normal deep shade of violet. Muttering under her breath about the school needing to get better equipment, she unlatched the carcass of the punching bag from the chain that kept it hanging from the gym ceiling. She dragged the leather remnants over to the small pile she had going against the gym wall and roughly threw it to join its companions. Looking up into the mirror that encased the wall she stared down the blonde glaring back at her.

Sweat shown across Yang's well-toned arms and through the orange tank top she chose as her workout clothes. A grimace marred the blonde's face as her eyes quickly darted away from the mirror and around the empty gym. Plain yellow walls and various forms of workout equipment and sparring mats greeted her as she confirmed that no one was around to see her in her current condition.

She couldn't keep the confident exterior up forever and Yang could plainly see that the rest of her team had noticed that the blonde was not all there. She hated seeing the looks of worry that each of them gave her every time she let her guard down. Unfortunately, the weight of past events were wearing down the mental walls Yang kept between her exterior and her emotions and she just felt the continued need to be alone to sort through her problems. Once again, she found herself in the gym to try and use up the aggressive energy that was building up inside of her. If she could just get past that, maybe she could actually think straight for more than a minute and get back to being the normal, fun loving Yang.

Unfortunately, every time Yang felt her usual confident smile come back to her, the small cold weight of a certain note from a certain criminal that she kept hidden in her pocket brought the blonde back to reality. The small, ice cream themed girl dominated Yang's every thought, keeping her from focusing on anything this past week. The girl couldn't spend a day training without the little witch's face coming to the forefront of her mind. The conversation they had in that small dark cell played over and over in Yang's head, the girl trying her hardest to figure out the motives behind Neo's words.

" **In case you change your mind** "

It had to be a trick, a ploy to get into Yang's head and take her off her game. One more taunt that would forever stick within the blonde brawler. If that was truly the desired effect, then the tiny criminal had beaten Yang once again. ' _But what if it wasn't'_. The thought settled on her mind as she recalled the desperation in Neo's voice. The same desperation that Yang heard in her own voice every time she asked anyone for answers about her mother. Maybe the multicolored girl just wanted someone in her life to come to for comfort, not unlike Yang had needed all those years ago.

Yang felt the frustration building inside of her again as crimson eyes stared at her out of the mirror. Her mind was just going in the same circle of doubt and confusion that it had every time she spent a moment to truly think about Neo's offer. Whether or not the desire for friendship was honest or just a ruse, it didn't change the fact that the criminal had spent every waking moment working for people that were actively trying to hurt those Yang truly loved. That was the truth of the situation and Yang grabbed a tight hold around the thought as the fury once again bubbled its way to the surface.

Lacking a bag to release her anger on, she threw her rage at the first thing that lay in front of her. Her own image shattered apart as Yang felt the mirror give and break under the force of her fist. Memories of a similar situation forced their way to the forefront of her mind as Yang recalled her previous attempts to take down the source of her problems. She stumbled back and fell to the floor, breathing heavily as those images rushed their way through her mind.

It could have been seconds or maybe hours that Yang sat there, staring at the wreckage in front of her and waiting for the small pink and brown girl to come out of nowhere and engage her. Jumping violently, Yang wheeled around as she felt a small hand touch her shoulder. Fear turned to confusion as she saw two identical colored eyes staring down at her with concern shining in the deep pools of amber.

Blake had cautiously approached the school gym only to start rushing her way to the door when she heard a loud crash emanate through the hallway. She had run into the gym preparing for the worst only to see Yang sitting on the ground, staring at the shattered remains of the mirror. She moved slowly forward and moved her hand to comfort her friend and partner. Flinching slightly as the blonde quickly turned towards her with a look of crimson, she kept her hands up to ward off any surprise reaction from Yang.

Blake's heart dropped as she saw tears rolling down her partner's cheeks, a look of fear and relief melting the red from Yang's eyes. Blake rushed to the blonde's side and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. A small weight lifted from her shoulder's when she felt Yang return the embrace and the two sat there as Yang continued to cry into her friend's shoulder.

They continued to sit for a few minutes before the blonde slowly withdrew herself from Blake's side. The feline girl kept one arm around Yang's shoulder as she continued to look at her broken partner, her ears folding back as she tried to think what she should say. Yang just looked down at the tiled floor, bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

"Yang, what is going on?" Blake implored, using her free hand to move Yang's gaze up to her own.

Yang just stared into her friend's eyes, thinking desperately on what she could say to explain her actions. She couldn't tell her everything, it wasn't Blake's burden to bear. "I don't… I can't" was all that she could manage as her mind battled with her emotions.

"Why don't you trust me? I want to help you Yang." Blake poured every bit of comfort and concern into her words, trying to break through the stubborn girl's wall. Yang just continued to stare in silence as she looked deep into the amber orbs and saw the hurt in her partner's eyes.

"I'm sorry," Yang finally managed after a few moments, returning her eyes to the floor in front of her.

"For what?"

"Everything!" Yang shouted looking back at her friend "The way I've been acting lately, worrying you all, letting everyone down." These final softly spoken words were met with more tears as the blonde rested her head into her knees.

Blake brought the girl closer to her, rubbing her hand up and down Yang's arm in an attempt to calm her down. "There's nothing to be sorry about. We're all just concerned about you and want to help, but you've got to let us in."

"I'm afraid Blake…"

These words struck Blake's heart, the pain thick in every one of them. She couldn't imagine a world where Yang Xiao Long was afraid. Lost for words, she thought back to the time when Yang had helped Blake overcome her own demons and the faunus' resolve strengthened. Blake retracted her arm and moved to sit in front of Yang, lifting the blonde's head up so she was once again staring into Blake's eyes.

"Tell me everything."

Yang thought for a moment on what she should tell the girl. Quickly thinking, she finally settled on at least a partial of the truth.

"Remember the train?"

"Kind of hard to forget," Blake responded, frowning as the memories came rushing back to her.

"Yeah, but do you remember the girl I had to fight."

An image of straight pink, brown and white hair and a cocky smile came to Blake as she recalled the girl that Yang had kept busy while the other two members of team RWBY had rushed forward to try and stop the train. Blake simply nodded, encouraging Yang to continue with her explanation.

"She beat me Blake, had me knocked out cold on the floor of that train." Blake's eyes widened at the revelation. She always had assumed that Yang had managed to defeat the criminal and come to join them at the front of the train. Never had it occurred to Blake that Yang had actually lost her duel.

"I was at her mercy, I could have died right then and there if it wasn't for… something interfering at the last moment." Yang hesitated on the last few words, deciding to omit her mother's sudden appearance as it would just raise more unnecessary questions.

"But you didn't die, and that's all that matters in the end" Blake said leaning forward and resting her hand on Yang's shoulder. "You're still here with us Yang. She caught you off guard and that's it. Next time we'll all be ready for whatever Torchwick throws at us."

"But what if we aren't ready," Yang shouted, shaking her head at her friends words, "we barely know anything about Neo, what if she has motives of her own? We don't know the first thing about her."

Blake withdrew her hand, looking with every bit of strength into the fearful girl's eyes. "She's working for Torchwick and the White Fang, that's all the information we need to know she's bad." Yang looked back into the hardened, confident eyes of her partner and a small part of the weight on her shoulders lifted away.

"Next time, we'll have your back. That's what friends do." Blake said, standing up and offering a hand. Yang smiled and took it, letting Blake help her to her feat. She wiped the remaining tears from her face and nodded at her partner. Blake rested her hand on Yang's shoulder again and smiled.

Once the raven-haired girl knew that Yang was feeling at least partially better she took a moment to glance around at the carnage surrounding them, taking in the small pile of busted punching bags and shattered remains of the mirror.

"You know, the schools going to start adding 'destroyed equipment' to our tuition bills if we're not careful," Blake teased the blonde, giving Yang a small shove.

"I guess it's a good thing that we have royalty on our team to pick up the tab then," Yang responded, a small smile ghosting her features. Blake's own smile widened as she recognized the old joking Yang coming back to her. It was a step in the right direction, one that Blake hoped continue.

"Even so, we should probably leave before Professor Goodwitch finds us."

"Good idea," Yang said picking up her gym bag and walking towards the exit with Blake keeping pace next to her.

* * *

By the time the two partners had made it back to team RWBY's dorm it was already approaching evening as the little sun that poked through the windows in the halls slowly disappeared. After saying hello to the passing members of team JNPR going to dinner they walked up to their own door and Blake set her hand on the knob to open it. Yang took a deep breath and straightened herself up as she walked through the now open door after Blake.

She was swiftly greeted by a flurry of rose petals, as a small red blur slammed into her at full speed almost knocking Yang to the floor. After setting one foot back to maintain her balance she looked down to see her sister wrapping Yang up in a tight hug. Large silver eyes looked up at her as Yang closed her own arms around her sister, seeing the smile grow on the young leader's face.

Ruby finally broke the embrace after several minutes and stared deeply into her sister's eyes. "You feeling better now?" she asked, looking for any hint of sorrow or anger. The pain was still clear in the pools of violet but hints of the old confident Yang shined through making Ruby's grin grow even further.

"Much better Rubes," the blonde said quietly, ruffling Ruby's black and red hair as she stepped into the room. Weiss had turned to see the sisterly encounter, a sense of relief pouring over the heiress at the small sign that things were slowly returning to normal. She looked to Blake who had taken her usual position on her bunk and nodded a silent thank you to her black-haired friend. Blake just flashed her a small smile before picking her book back up delving into the pages.

A loud groan echoed through the room as Weiss snapped her head to the source and saw Yang holding her stomach and grinning sheepishly. "Sorry, all that angst worked up a bit of an appetite," the blonde said, acknowledging the goliath in the room. "Let me grab a quick shower and we can go down and get something to eat… you know if you guys want…" Yang looked to Weiss with an apologetic smile, her eyes darting to the scar in the wall.

Weiss examined the blonde for a few seconds before her smile returned to her face. "That would be lovely," she finally said as Yang's own smile grew, "you best hurry though before Nora eats everything."

Yang nodded and hurried to the bathroom, quickly removing her dirty gym clothes and jumping into the shower. _'Blake is right, all of my friends are right here'_ she thought to herself, feeling the water cascading down her shoulders. She tried to imagine the steaming droplets washing away all the fear and worry from the past week and let out a long sigh.

Still the image of a cocky smile intruded into her mind and Yang felt the small girl's presence once again. _'But what if?'_ That one thought was all it took for everything to come rushing back to her. She imagined a world where the two were friends and confusion set in again. Quickly stepping out of the shower she toweled off and put on her fresh clothes, hurrying out to the distraction of her team. Weiss and Blake were once again engrossed in their books and only looked up when Yang closed the door to the bathroom behind her.

"Ready?" Blake asked with a smile, setting her book down and getting up from the bed.

"Absolutely," Yang announced to the room, once again donning the mask of a smile. Weiss also bookmarked where she was and stood up, walking to the door with Blake behind. Yang looked to Ruby who was standing next to the door, waiting for her sister to go first. "Come on Rubes," Yang said, stretching her smile further and walking out the door.

Ruby just smiled back at the apparently back to normal girl. As Yang looked away from her and walked out the door, Ruby's heart dropped as she once again noticed the smile fall away from her sister's face.

* * *

 **A/N: So now we get a glimpse into Yang's psychy after her ordeal. I know I'm taking a lot of liberties with Yang's personality but this is how I would imagine the Yang I have been developing would deal with everything that is going on. I hope you all continue to enjoy and please feel free to leave a review if you have any questions or comments.**

 **MorgothII: *bangs head against desk* Don't know how I missed that typo when I was editing. Glad you're still enjoying the story and especially my attempts at fleshing out Neo's character. Thanks for reading!**

 **Aqua X: Glad you enjoyed my take on Neo's story. I always felt that I could identify with Torchwick's personality, at least the sarcastic/kind of an ass hole portions of it. You nailed it on the head when you said that the chapter only felt half complete. The original intent was to include both Yang and Neo's reactions in the same chapter but I started to extend Neo's backstory and I felt that trying to cram Yang's explanation into the mix would just be too much. That and I was eager to get a new chapter out after the long delay I had. Hindsight being 20/20 I can think of quite a few things I could have added to give a little more to the chapter but alas I've made my bed and now it's time to restlessly toss and turn in it. Thanks for the reviews and I hope you continue to enjoy.**

 **-Thank you kindly**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The door closed on the hum and pur of machinery echoing through the warehouse as Neo stepped into her makeshift "office". The criminal let out a heavy sigh after finally completing a particularly ordinary and uninteresting inspection of the progress being made towards the final plan. All the White Fang really needed now was the go ahead from the illustrious leader Neo had found herself employed to. The anxious atmosphere could be felt everywhere around the warehouse as more and more little tasks were completed so one less thing might go wrong when everything went to chaos. Luckily for Neo, she had set up this tiny little office on the farthest side of the warehouse where only the loudest of problems could find her.

Her own little haven. A place where the criminal mastermind could sit in a peaceful bubble and be alone to her thoughts. The dull grey interior of the room was void of the loud and obnoxious decorations Roman had preferred for his private quarters and the low lighting meant that Neo had all sorts of shadows she could lie in and feel unseen and unnoticed if only for a moment.

The smaller criminal slowly walked into her room, basking in the peace and calm that surrounded her. She had just decided which darkened corner she was going to spend her time in when a particularly irksome set of folders drew her eyes to the small desk shoved haphazardly against the far wall of the room. She knew that they weren't there when she last left the room. If they had been here before, she would not have left them in such a disheveled state, scattered across the metal slab. Neo always preferred to have things under control and even this little mess in her zone of comfort set her teeth on edge. Sighing heavily to expel the frustration in her shoulders she resigned herself to the next few hours of reports and inventory lists that now occupied her afternoon.

Walking over to the desk, Neo quickly straightened up the folders before grabbing the reports from the numerous moles that scattered around Vale. The consistent flow of information the spies provided were mostly just stuff that the smaller criminal had already known from her multiple times scouting possible heist locations and as such could be skimmed and put aside within minutes of being picked up.

The girl's other motive to grabbing these reports first could be found in a particular student residing within Beacon's walls. Every so often Neo would read a section on the whereabouts of her golden interest and the small criminal would smile at the update. The information tended to be little to no importance to her current assignment but knowing that the blonde had returned to her somewhat normal life without informing those around her of their conversation gave Neo a little ease.

Shaking away these thoughts, Neo walked over to a set of crates she had placed in one corner and eased herself down on one of them. Resting her back against the wall, she opened the first folder and began reading. Neo groaned as she delved into the ravings of some faunus, going on about how Ironwood's tin soldiers had busted in on his operations and seized the small stockpile of dust and weapons he had kept in order to help out the cause. The foolish faunus had not heeded the multiple warnings the White Fang had put out about any recourses for the cause being safer under the care of the organization and as such had paid the price. Another wanabee, thinking that he was somehow going to provide the turning point in the battles to come.

' _Can't they at least try and make these a touch more interesting'_ Neo lamented to herself as she scanned through the oddly specific records of the lost weapons and dust. Her eyes slowly closed as the boredom muddied her thoughts. Quickly shaking her head, Neo sat up a little straighter in a futile attempt to stay awake. Alas as she continued to peruse through numbers and figures, her eyes closed and darkness filled her mind.

A knock at the door jolted the criminal awake as her senses came crashing back to her. The report currently spread open on her chest fell to the floor as Neo stood up and stretched her arms to the air. Slowly walking towards the door she waited a second to see if the knock had just been a figment of her groggy, unfocused mind. The soft pounding of a smaller fist told Neo that someone had indeed interrupted her nap. Straightening her face to a more business like demeaner in order to hide the slight twinge of anger she felt, Neo opened the door and all thoughts of sleep disappeared. Standing in the doorway was a taller, elegant woman with long flowing black hair. Adorned in a short red dress with long sleeves, the woman walked into the room uninvited and stared around the room, her eyes falling on the set of folders scattered across the floor where Neo had been sitting earlier.

Neo snapped out of her shock as the golden, fiery eyes of Cinder Fall turned towards her with a small smile gracing her face. Neo shook her head to clear what was left of the fog that resided in her head and stood up straight, waiting for her boss to tell her why she had come all the way from Beacon to talk to the smaller criminal.

"How are the preparations going Neo," Cinder asked, delving right into the business at hand.

Neo shrugged her shoulders at the question, not having anything to report since the last message she had sent to the infiltration team residing within Beacon's walls.

A small frown appeared on Cinder's face as she examined the smaller woman in front of her. Neo picked up on the change of behavior and a small knot formed in her stomach at the intimidating aura that emanated from her boss.

"Didn't Torchwick teach you any manners Neo," Cinder said in small controlled words, never moving her eyes from Neo's. "The silent treatment you give to the lesser members of our group is fine but when I ask you a question, I expect a real answer. Is that clear?"

Neo shrank slightly at the glare Cinder gave her, and started a nod before quickly catching herself and standing up straight again. "Y- yes mam," she finally managed, never breaking the continued eye contact between the two women. Neo would not show any more weakness than her body was already betraying.

"Good." Cinder let her smile come back to her and she slowly walked to the far side of the room, each step accented by a small tap of her heels. Neo stood still as she watched Cinder's form bend slightly over the small desk and glance through the neat stack of reports. She continued to wonder why Cinder had come here. She must have needed more than just an update if she had abandoned her team to come see Neo in person. These thoughts continued through the small woman's head as the Cinder stood up again and turned to Neo.

"I imagine things are getting a little boring around here?"

Neo thought through the question, trying to find the purpose behind it and whether or not she was being baited into something. "It's a job mam," she finally decided on, going for the safer answer.

"That may be, but I detest wasting potential on meaningless tasks."

"Meaningless?"

"Now that their leader has arrived, the White Fang no longer need a babysitter to make sure things go smoothly and I have a problem of my own that needs attending."

Neo recalled the redheaded bull that had appeared a few days back. Not really thinking anything about the sudden appearance, the man had neglected to even introduce himself to the small girl. It wouldn't have surprised Neo if the White Fang leader had even noticed the little criminal's presence. _'Just another man hiding behind a slightly fancier mask'_ had been Neo's conclusion after watching the bull faunus for a couple of days.

"Turns out a girl of your talents could be of some use to my little team in Beacon," Cinder said breaking Neo out of her train of thought. Neo perked up at the prospect of a new, more interesting job. Cinder let her smile grow as she noticed that she now had the smaller girl's full and undivided attention

"We need a fourth member for the upcoming tournament. One that can get us through the first round," Cinder said, launching into the details of Neo's new mission, "We could probably beat these people with just the three of us but rules are rules and as such we need someone who can hold their own in a fight."

Neo nodded as she came to an understanding of the role she would be needed for. She smiled at her boss, the idea of a break from her routine giving the small girl a sense of elation. "Thought you might be up to it," Cinder smirked, noting the change in demeaner of Torchwick's right hand.

"You'll be needing a disguise as I believe some of the people at Beacon might be able to recognize you from past events," Cinder said as she walked past Neo towards the exit. "From what I hear that won't be too much of a problem, will it?" Cinder mentioned, looking back at Neo as she opened the door.

Neo looked up at her boss and shook her head smiling as the pink slowly melted from her hair.

* * *

Energy charged through Beacon Academy as the Vital Festival tournament drew closer with every passing day. Students from all four major schools crowded the grounds as the sounds of weapons and commands echoed against the walls. Not a single practice arena or gym was left unoccupied and as such, certain classrooms had been cleared to give the students ample room to vent all the pent-up energy. Professor Goodwitch had professed a deep desire to avoid any more broken mirrors or holes in the walls, keeping a rather close eye on the young blonde that had been the source of a lot of the recent destruction.

To Yang's credit, she had managed to keep her emotions in check over the past few days. The blonde had managed to avoid falling to deeply into the darkness that was her previous state and with the help of her team any thoughts of the pink haired devil had mostly dissipated to only haunt her deeper dreams.

Whenever Yang seemed to fall back into the darkness, her team always seemed to be there to help her see clearly again. Whether it be Weiss' constant team activities or Blake's small comforting conversations, Yang always seemed to be able to forget about all her past troubles and crawl her way into the then and now just like old times.

With this new mentality came the realization that there was a tournament looming around the corner. The old thrill and confidence slowly crept its way through the blonde fighter's system as team RWBY spent numerous hours in practice rings and out in the Grimm infested Emerald Forest making sure their combat skills remained as sharp as possible. With every passing sparring match, Yang felt the adrenaline surging through her, reminding her why she had come to Beacon in the first place. To look for every adventure and find the newest thrill. Yang grabbed hold of this purpose in her life and wasn't going to let anyone stand in her way.

During one particularly long training match with team JNPR, the group of friends had to go out towards the edges of Beacon's grounds to find some open space. The last spar with Pyrrha occupied Yang's every thought as she pondered over possible ways to edge out her very well trained partner. Both fighters had spent the past few hours fighting against each of the other team's members in order to find out who amongst them would have the best chance in the singles match at the tail end of the tournament. Pyrrha had easily edged out all of team RWBY except for Yang who had similarly taken down each of the members of team JNPR with slightly more difficulty, especially when it came to a certain crazed, hammer wielding girl.

The two fighters squared off in the 20 foot radius circle that Weiss had drawn on the nearby cliff overlooking the Emerald Forest. A slight breeze caused the two girl's hair to flutter around them, blonde allowed to flow in its usual mane and red tied back into a pony tail. As they stared each other down, each girl tried to gauge how spent the other was. Each of them had lowered levels of aura remaining in them due to the back to back fights each of them had fought previously. Yang's of course was slightly lower but this didn't bother her as the thrill of the fight coursed through her veins and sparks flew off her hair.

Pyrrha saw all these signs in her counterpart and smiled, recalling how not so long ago the blonde had been not quite herself. The redhead had worried that the nerves of the upcoming tournament were starting to get to her friend but every sign in front of her stated that Yang wasn't just ready. She was excited.

Ruby blew a sharp note on her whistle, causing Weiss and Jaune who were standing next to her to cringe away, holding their ears. Yang launched herself forward, always the first to attack throughout that evening. Pyrrha anticipated this start and readied her brass shield, Akouo, in front of her to catch the incoming blow. An explosion rang across the shield as the resounding bang caused birds to scatter from the trees below them. Yang followed up the unsuccessful shot with a quick uppercut under Akouo to catch the other fighter off guard. Pyrrha nimbly jumped backwards, only catching a small part of the punch on her breastplate. Taking a quick breath, the seasoned fighter shook her long red pony tail back and bolted forward. Switching her main weapon, Milo, to its Xyphos sword form, Pyrrha swung a quick series of strikes at the blonde, transitioning flawlessly between over handed swings, side strikes, and quick jabs.

Yang had to retreat to avoid taking too much damage to her already depleted aura, managing to deflect most of the strikes across her twin gauntlets and weaving in a few punches of her own. _'This isn't working,'_ the blonde thought to herself, grimacing at the continued flurry of strikes against her. _'I have to catch her off guard. Try something she would never expect from me.'_ Yang soon found herself backed to the edge of the makeshift ring, holding her ground before the seasoned fighter.

Pyrrha let a small smile grace her face as she sensed a sure and easy victory at hand. The tall warrior expected Yang to stand her ground and just take whatever was thrown at her as was Yang's nature for the past few months that Pyrrha had known her. Quickly switching Milo to spear form, Pyrrha planted one foot forward and placed as much force into the match's final blow.

It wasn't until it was far too late that Pyrrha noticed a cocky smirk and the small glint in the crimson eyes staring at her. Yang sidestepped the incoming thrust and grabbed hold of Pyrrha's spear. With a strong pull, Yang yanked on the spear, carrying the tournament fighter over her center of gravity and hurling towards the edge of the ring. Pyrrha had to release her hold on Milo in order to not take the full force of the toss, watching the spear fly far out of reach. With the lessened force, she continued to stumble past Yang, using her semblance to pull herself towards nearest source of metal in an attempt to keep herself in the fight.

Unfortunately for her, the nearest source of metal was her opponent's gauntlets and as she drew closer to Yang, the blonde brawler grappled onto Pyrrha's outstretched arm and quickly spun her around with the aid of Pyrhha's remaining momentum. Yang kicked out her leg to sweep Pyrrha off of her feet. Now weightless in the air, the tall redhead found herself flying out of Yang's grip and across the cliff out of the ring.

Weiss called the match in favor of Yang and a grin split across the blonde's face as she felt the surge of victory. Ruby cheered for her sister and Yang swore she saw a very reluctant Nora hand something to Blake as the faunus girl beamed at her partner. Yang walked her way over to Pyrrha who was still sitting on the ground and held out her hand to her friend. Pyrrha graciously accepted the blonde's offer, smiling up at her.

"You almost had me there," Yang said helping Pyrrha to her feet and helping to retrieve Milo from its final resting place.

"Yeah, I didn't expect that last move," Pyrrha said continuing to smile as the two walked back to the rest of the group.

Yang shrugged and clasped her hands behind her head, stretching out the sore muscles in the process. "My usual style wasn't working and I had to think on my feet. Didn't quite feel like being a kabob today."

Pyrrha chuckled at the light humor and thought back to the final confusing moments of the fight. Nothing in Yang's past suggested that she would try something like that and Pyrrha had plenty of experience reading her opponents. "No it was a smart move, using my own strike's momentum against me. Where did you get the idea?"

Yang's easy smile melted away as a flash of pink flew across her vision. Quickly shaking away the thought, she brought her smile back, hoping that Pyrrha hadn't noticed. Luckily for her the redhead was still distracted with playing back the match in her head.

"I don't know, it's just something I picked up in a previous fight I guess."  
"Well that's good, it's always important to learn from your opponents. Never know when you might be able to pick up on a weakness in your own style."

Yang just smiled at the praise in Pyrrha's voice as the two fighters reached their friends. Jaune quickly walked up to Pyrrha to make sure she was alright, smiling when the tall girl reassured him that everything was fine. Meanwhile Ruby threw herself at Yang, wrapping the blonde in a giant hug.

"YOU WERE AMAZING!" she shouted with pure glee in her voice. Yang finally pried the smaller girl of her and looked to her other two teammates who had similar smiles on their faces.

"The other teams won't know what hit them," Weiss said with an air of triumph as the four girls turned to walk over to team JNPR who were having a brief discussion about possible things to work on.

"HEY TEAM MEETING GOING ON HERE!" Nora shouted as she saw the four enemies walking towards the huddle, "NO CHEATING!" Pyrrha silently laughed at the mock serious tone that Nora had put on while Ren and Jaune just shook their heads. A deep rumble betrayed the juggernaut girl as she quickly grasped her stomach in both hands.

The entire rest of the group burst into laughter as everyone took the que to start walking back towards Beacon for dinner. Nora abandoned her huffed attitude and merrily skipped along next to Ren. Jaune and Pyrrha struck up a heated discussion on things that Jaune could improve on and what he could learn from her recent bout.

The members of team RWBY walked slightly behind JNPR in a pleasurable silence, enjoying the sun and breeze. Yang never let her smile fall from her face, continuing to replay the last fight in her head and relishing in the victory at hand. _'I have a chance'_ she thought to herself as she continued to walk alongside her team not noticing the small glances she was getting from her younger sister.

"Penny for your thoughts," the Ruby sang, bumping Yang playfully with her shoulder.

"Oh nothing, just thinking what I'm going to do with that trophy once I get my hands on it," Yang replied after a moment, smiling at the wide grin on Ruby's face.

"Fat chance," Nora called back to the all-female team, spinning around and walking backwards to face them. "You got lucky, next time we're gonna whoop your butts."

The group chuckled at the challenge and Pyrrha turned her head towards the blonde. "Yeah, I won't let you me catch me off guard again."

"Don't get cocky Yang," Weiss said with a smile "we don't need you getting too inflated of an ego and giving the enemy a bigger target."

"Yes, your overconfidence is your weakness," Nora said, referencing one of the movies the group had watched during one of their nightly activities. Both teams burst into renewed laughter as they approached the gates of Beacon and after a quick agreement to meet up after both teams had a chance to clean up, they slowly made their way up to their individual dorms.

As RWBY walked into their room, Ruby quickly called dibs on first shower and bolted to the bathroom door in a flash of rose petals. Weiss just rolled her eyes at the leader's childish behavior and sat herself down at her desk to record her notes on the team's readiness after the training matches. Yang was about to climb into her own bunk when Blake quickly pulled her back into the hallway.

Yang gave her partner a confused look as the faunus closed the door behind her. "Sorry needed a quick word with you," Blake said after a moment of silence.

"What's on your mind?"  
"I was just wondering how you're feeling…"

The question took Yang by surprise as she remembered the conversation they had held in the gym all those days ago. Letting a smile grace her face she put a hand on her partner's shoulder and pulled the faunus into a hug. "I'm feeling great." Yang responded softly as Blake returned the embrace. The two stepped apart after a second and Blake beamed at her partner.

"I'm glad to hear this," Blake responded with an air of relief. Both girls stood there waiting for the other to say something else until Yang finally got bored with the silence.

"…Thanks for everything you guys are doing for me," the blonde mumbled, rubbing her hand on the back of her neck.  
"It's what friends are for," Blake replied with a nod. The silence filled the hall again as the two continued to smile at each other. Both enjoyed the moment for a few more seconds before a deep rumbling from Yang's stomach shattered the mood. The blonde's cheeks tinted with red as she smiled apologetically at her partner.

"I think I'm just going to head down to dinner now," Yang said after a few awkward moments, "I think I could eat a Beowolf after that last match."

"Sounds good," Blake said, laughing at the situation, "I'll go tell the rest of the team and meet you down there." Blake pulled Yang into another quick hug before separating and walking back into the room.

Yang basked in the warm feeling that was spreading through her heart as she continued to stand in place outside of the now closed door. Another rumble of her stomach reminded her of the task at hand and she sighed and quickly turned around without taking stock of her surroundings.

She felt a small form slam into her as she reeled back at the impact and sent the person scattering to the ground. Quickly shaking herself out of her surprise she looked down, expecting to see Nora. What Yang wasn't expecting was the look of pure shock staring up at her out of two brilliant light green eyes.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, we're getting towards the beginning of Volume 3 now. Sorry for the massive wait, I'm dealing with some writer's block right now and also starting to gather some ideas for other stories I want to start. Hopefully everyone is still enjoying the story and I thank all of you for continuing to read. Please leave a review if you can think of things I can improve on or just was to discuss something.**

 **AquaX: My purpose behind that last sentence in chapter 5 was to kind of allude to the fact that everything is not suddenly all sunshine and rainbows in Yang's world yet. I didn't want it to seem like one conversation with Blake was all it took to destroy Yang's demons. That being said I could have probably done it a little better and I thank you for your continued input.**

 **-Thank you kindly**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

' _Crap!'_

The mystery girl continued to sit on the ground looking up at Yang, emerald colored eyes opened wide with alarm as the blonde tried to figure out what had just happened. After an awkward few seconds of staring Yang finally shook herself out of the initial shock. Examining the girl in front of her, Yang couldn't remember if she had ever seen her around Beacon. The wide green eyes that had taken all of the blonde's attention at first were framed by locks of long black hair, tied up into twin pigtails by a couple of simple white bows. Her mouth was agape in shock and a small look of panic filled the tiny girl's eyes, completely baffling Yang as she was the one who had knocked her down.

"Oh crap, didn't see you there," Yang said, offering a hand to help the smaller girl up. The girl continued to stare without saying a word, her eyes fixed on the concerned lilac orbs in front of her. The concern only grew on Yang at the unresponsive nature of the fallen girl. Fearing that she had hit her head on the way down, Yang knelt on one knee to get eye level with the mysterious girl and looked carefully into the pools of green for any sign of injury, holding out an apprehensive hand to try and help.

The girl snapped out of it as Yang got closer to her. The look of shock evaporated from the girl's eyes in an instant as she quickly put on an apologetic smile. She reached a hand covered in an elbow length black glove out to Yang and, grabbing hold of the blonde's hand, she let Yang help her up.

"Sorry about that…"

As the girl said those words something in Yang's brain rang an alarm. The girl's voice was familiar but Yang just couldn't peg what about it had caused the sirens to go off. Something very recent…

"Umm. Everything alright?" This time the voice of the girl was slightly higher in pitch then what Yang had heard before.

' _Must be imagining things. No way this girl is her. But still there's something familiar…'_ Yang shook the thoughts out her mind, dismissing everything as just a result of the bump the two had shared.

"Yeah I'm fine, should be asking you the same question," Yang said with a slight smile.

"Eh, I've had worst tumbles in my life," the girl responded, straightening out her outfit and making sure nothing had fallen out of place. The girl wore a short black vest that stopped short of her midriff, adorned at the top with a series of white frills around her neck that draped slightly down her chest. A simple black string secured the frills up, acting as a choker of sorts and tied in the front with a simple bow knot. The girl wore a short black and white skirt kept to her waist with a simple white belt, showing off a pair of thin, toned legs. Two short necked, black combat boots covered her feet with long white socks that stretched up to just below her knees, kept there by a couple of black bands.

' _Yup, definitely would have noticed her around,'_ Yang thought to herself, smiling at the assurance that the smaller girl was alright. Something in Yang's head was still ringing as she continued to examine the girl in front of her. She shoved the thought to the back of her head, chalking it up to the confusion of so many new people being at Beacon for the festival.

"Still sorry I ran into you, wasn't paying attention."

"Don't fret about it," the mystery girl said, waving away Yang's apology and shooting the girl a smile. "I shouldn't have sneaked up on you like that."

"Alright it's your fault then," Yang said quickly, giving the girl a small grin to show she was kidding.

"Well then, I should probably make it up to you somehow," the girl retorted shooting Yang a quick wink.

"Careful there small-fry, that kind of talk can bite you in the ass someday."

"Oh no," the girl said with an exaggerated quiver in her voice clasping her hands together in front of her, "Please have mercy on me your blondness!"

"I don't know, this was quite a grievous offense," Yang shot back, putting her hands on her hips and acquiring a huffed tone.

"Spare me!" the girl said, getting on her knees and looking up at Yang, green eyes shining with mock fear.

Yang put her nose in the air, towering over the smaller girl. The two managed to keep the charade going for about three more seconds before both broke down in fits of laughter, the mystery girl rolling on the floor while Yang just braced herself against the wall while holding her sides. After a few more moments the laughter subsided as Yang wiped a tear from her cheek and the smaller girl just sat on the floor with one hand braced behind her.

"Oh god," Yang gasped, letting a few more chuckles escape, "alright, I guess I'll let you off with a warning this time." Yang stood up straight and took a couple deep breaths before offering her hand to the girl again. The girl just waved away Yang's hand and nimbly rolled backwards into a backwards summersault, landing neatly on her feet. Yang gave a small golf clap as the girl bowed, flourishing her hands.

"Definitely would have noticed you around," Yang said out loud as she approached the girl. A small something flew through Yang's heart as she saw the girl give a small giggle and Yang couldn't help her smile growing slightly bigger. "I was just about to grab some dinner, wanna come with, or do you need to go bump into more people?"

"I've known you for all of five minutes and you're already asking me out on a date?" she responded, putting her hand up to her mouth in mock surprise.

Yang just rolled her eyes, "Don't get full of yourself short-stuff." The two girls laughed again as the smaller girl followed along-side Yang down the hall. "Don't think I've seen you around, what's your name?"

"…Mint," the green-eyed girl responded after a moment's hesitation, "I just came here from Haven Academy to join my team for the tournament.

"Weird name," Yang responded as she filed the name away and stopped to think to herself for a second, "so if I kiss you will I get fresh breath?"

Mint's smile melted as her cheeks tinted a shade of red that would put Ruby's cloak to shame. Yang noticed the reaction and fell into another fit of laughter. "It was a joke shortcake," she finally managed after finally catching her breath. Mint just rolled her eyes, bumping Yang with her elbow her cheeks still slightly pink.

"Well my name's Yang and I'll be your guide during your stay here at Beacon," Yang announced quickly jumping out in front of the raven-haired girl and walking backwards with her hands outstretched to behold the wonders around her.

Mint mimed taking photos as Yang pointed at various random doors and spans of walls while spouting random, made up facts about imaginary people and events that had supposedly happened. They continued this charade until the two reached the cafeteria.

"And finally, we reach the location of the Great Siege of Castle Valkyrie," she said with an air of grandeur, stepping into the large room and gesturing around the area. "It was in this location that the great golden warrior… Yin and her comrades took on the dastardly Team… Jupiter and through great peril and sacrifice, triumphed over the forces of evil!" Yang finished her explanation, raising a fist in the air and putting her other hand over her heart.

"A moment of silence for the numerous turkeys that gave their lives in the name of delicious justice." Mint held a hand to her mouth to suppress the inevitable cascades of laughter trying to force their way out of her. After a brief silence was shared between the two girls Yang lowered her fist and looked dramatically out the window, "Thank you."

"How fascinating," Mint said through stifled giggles. She looked around, taking in the massive wooden tables filled with students enjoying their various plates of food. The room was filled with the sounds of silverware and various muddled conversations as people ate. A few of the students gave a quick wave to Yang as they walked through, stopping for a quick word or greeting here and there.

"Dude, they're serving chicken wings!" Yang said excitedly as she rushed through the rest of the tables, students hurrying out of the way to avoid the starving bulldozer. Mint just laughed and continued to follow the now cleared path in between her and the kitchen.

The two girl's retrieved their individual piles of wings and other various food items that served their individual fancies. Walking over to an empty table, they sat down across from each other and dove into their meals with almost equal vigor. Yang looked up from the current wing she had been mauling to admire the smaller girl's voracious appetite before getting another whiff of the delicious appendage below her.

Mint finally stopped her assault more for need of air than anything else. Giving her stomach a slight rest, she took a moment to look around the giant cafeteria. All the students sat at rectangular, wooden tables that looked like they could each hold up to twelve people comfortably. The room itself was massive with windows that stretched to the ceiling covering one of the walls, giving a gorgeous view of one of Beacon's courtyards. The great wooden door was flanked by two massive stone pillar, with more archways running along the sides of the room connected to the floor by smaller columns. All in all, the room was rather impressive looking with its tapestries draping from the ceiling and looming grey walls.

Mint continued to look around at anything that would catch her eye until she was snapped out of her admiration by the arrival of three other girls, each carrying trays of food catering to each of their tastes. The first of the new arrivals was a raven-haired girl adorned with a bow tied on the top of her head who sat to the right of Yang with a tray filled with tuna fish sandwiches and a steaming cup of tea. The next was a smaller girl, shooting the pair of girls a thousand megawatt smile and sporting a head of short brown hair tipped with red. The girl bounced into the seat on the other side of Yang, setting down her tray piled high with various cookies and a precariously full glass of milk.

The final girl paused a moment to glance at Mint before sitting down on the right of her with a small salad and respectably well balanced looking meal. The girl pushed a long, white side ponytail over her shoulder before returning her eyes to the smaller member of the party. She shook her head and pinched her nose with a long sigh as the girl across from her started inhaling cookies at break neck speed.

"Ruby you are going to get sick if you don't slow down," the white-haired girl said, sitting up straight and staring at the redhead with a look of disapproval.

"I feel fine Weiss," the smaller girl said, sending a spray of cookie crumbs across the table. Weiss pulled her tray back with a look of mild disgust as Ruby took a large gulp of milk and continued her cookie massacre.

"At least eat something decent," Weiss groaned, running a hand across her face and attempting to wipe the crumbs from her salad before finally putting it to the side with a look of mild disappointment.

"But Mommmmmmmmm," Ruby complained before finally getting up and walking back towards the kitchen.

The black haired girl suppressed a small chuckle before locking her amber eyes onto Mint and giving her a quizzical look. Mint just sheepishly waved her hand as Yang looked up and noticed the small exchange.

"Oh crap, my bad!" Yang exclaimed as she swallowed her current mouthful of food. "Blake, Weiss this is Mint. I kinda literally ran into her on my way down here. We chatted for a bit, I offered to show her around, and now we're on a date." The blonde shot Mint a smug smile as red crept into the smaller girl's cheeks.

One of Blake's eyebrows shot up at the small girl as Weiss just rolled her eyes at Yang's teasing attitude. "I am so sorry for your choice in woman," Blake said to Mint as Yang elbowed the black-haired girl.

"Hey, I am a catch," the blonde said, crossing her arms and shooting a winning smile around the table.

"Catch and release maybe," Weiss said as she dodged away from a grape that Yang flicked at her in retaliation. Mint relaxed a bit, the blush falling from her cheeks as she watched the playful banter between the teammates. Eventually they all fell into silence as they fell into their meals.

Ruby eventually returned with a small plate of "real" food followed by the members of Team JNPR who had apparently been delayed because Nora had fallen asleep and it took forever for Ren to finally convince her to come down to food. Ren and Nora sat beside each other in the seats next to Blake while Jaune and Pyrrha sat across from them with Pyrrha sitting down next to Mint.

"JNPR, Mint. Mint, JNPR." Yang said hurriedly said as she gestured to Mint who just gave the group a curt nod. The members of JNPR introduced themselves individually, Nora's words a little muffled through a mouthful of pancake. The large group started to eat as small talk broke out around the table. Mint just watched them all with an odd look of contemplation on her face until Pyrrha set down her fork and turned her head to look down at the much smaller girl.

"I'm sorry if this is rude, but I don't think I've seen you around Beacon before Mint," she said with an apologetic smile. Mint turned her head to Pyrrha, staring deeply into the redhead's eyes.

Green eyes looked into green as the smaller girl just stared at Pyrrha. Mint seemed to be looking for something inside of Pyrrha as the stare down continued. Her eyebrows scrunched together in deep thought as the silence soon became noticeable around the table. Jaune looked up from his bowl of Pumpkin Pete's cereal and glanced around his teammate to see that Mint had cocked her head to the side as she continued to contemplate Pyrrha.

"Ummm…" Jaune said as the startling green eyes shifted to him in the same contemplating stare. He recoiled slightly at the searching look Mint had turned upon him. Pyrrha frowned at the new comer as she noticed her attention shift to her friend. The redhead opened her mouth to say something before catching herself as she recognized the look the newcomer was giving the pair. The girl wasn't necessarily being rude on purpose, she was just trying to figure out the people in front of her. Almost like a wolf trying to figure out if the entities in front of her were strong enough the be allowed into her exclusive little pack. Pyrrha shut her mouth and sat a little straighter in her seat, locking eyes with Mint as the small girl finished sizing up Jaune. The golden fighter decided to play this new girl's game, for now.

At this point, most of the table had felt the uneasy tension that had rested upon the small group with the exception of Nora who was destroying her second stack of pancakes. Each of the group of friends shifted their gaze between Pyrrha and Mint as the two girls looked at each other, Pyrrha with a hard look of determination and Mint with a steady calculating glare and a cocky smile.

Yang cleared her throat as she wondered what in the world was wrong. From her perspective Pyrrha had just asked a simple question to her new friend and somehow that lead to the weird staring contest unfolding before them. Yang rubbed her hand on the back of her neck as she tried to figure out what was with her new friend. Her thoughts were interrupted with a short jab to her side from Blake's elbow. Yang looked quickly between Blake who was looking at her with one eyebrow raised, and Mint who just continued locking eyes with Pyrrha.

Yang cleared her throat in an attempt to get Mint's attention. When the smaller girl didn't respond, Yang stood and reached a hand across the table. The blonde vigorously waved it in front of Mint as whatever trance that had taken over the emerald-eyed girl seemed to break. She quickly snapped her head back to Yang, replacing her calculating look with one filled with confusion as she remembered that the blonde was there.

"Everything alright?" Yang asked, sitting back down into her seat.

"Yeah, why?" Mint responded, her voice thick with confusion as she remained oblivious to the glares she was receiving from the rest of the table.

"Well Pyrrha asked you a question and you kinda just went silent there for a bit," Yang said running a hand through her thick blonde hair.

"It's fine Yang," Pyrrha interrupted as she contemplated the girl next to her. She could see the absolute confusion in Mint as she tried to figure out what she did wrong. Almost like this was normal to her and everyone else were acting strange. Pyrrha relaxed a touch and gave Mint a small smile as Yang turned her attention to her.

Mint seemed to think for a few more seconds, looking between Yang and Pyrrha. Everyone just continued to glance at the newcomer, waiting for an explanation to her odd behavior. Mint returned her gaze to Yang and sighed. The small girl gave a slight shrug and turned back to face Pyrrha.

"I just arrived from Haven Academy to help my team with the tournament," Mint said as though the past couple of minutes had never happened.

"Well…" Pyrrha responded slowly, "Welcome to Beacon."

"Thank you."

The table fell into an uneasy silence as Mint looked expectantly at Pyrrha for another question. When none came about, she turned back to her food and started picking at what was left. Pyrrha could tell that the smaller girl still had something on her mind but, with no idea as to what it was, she decided to not pursue the matter any further.

"Sooooo…" Yang said slowly, trying to break the fog of awkwardness lying on the table. Mint looked up at her and waited for the blonde to continue.

"Soooo…" Mint repeated as Yang remained at a loss of what to say.

"What are your teammates names?" Blake asked in an attempt to help alleviate the weird atmosphere being created by the two girls.

"Yeah, anyone we might know," Yang said quickly, grabbing hold of the lifeline her partner had just tossed her.

Mint's eyes dropped to the table as her eyebrows scrunched together. "I don't think any of you would know them," she said after a moment's hesitation, "they tend to be the quiet type."

"Well then tell us who they are and we'll break them out of their shells," Nora said confidently, finally taking an interest in the conversation.

"Nora," Ren groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"What?" she shot back, "As Jaune says, strangers are just friends you haven't met yet." Jaune nodded his head in acknowledgment as Nora bounced in her seat and waited for Mint's response.

"I don't know, they tend to be a massive pain in the…"

"Well what do we have here!"

The entire table turned to look down at the end where a dark-skinned girl with cropped, mint green hair stood in a Haven uniform consisting of a black coat and a black and grey plaid skirt. She kept a smile on her face as she looked down the table at everyone in turn, finally resting her dark red eyes on Mint. The smaller girl didn't back down her gaze but that didn't stop the alarm she felt seeping into her eyes.

"EMERALD!" Ruby shouted from the opposite end of the table causing Mint to jump nearly a foot in her seat.

"Heya Ruby," Emerald Sustrai said, acknowledging the bubbling ball of energy, "How's everyone doing?"  
"As well as always Em," Yang responded, "How 'bout yourself?"

"Can't complain, I see you've already met my teammate."

"Mint's your teammate?" Weiss said, glancing at the green-eyed girl sitting next to her. Weiss noted that Mint's once easygoing posture was now gone. The girl was tense in her seat as she shifted her eyes from Emerald to Yang. Filing the oddity away into the back of her head, the heiress returned her gaze to Emerald as she smiled down at Mint.

"Yeah… Mint." Emerald said as if she was trying to see how her teammates name fit on her tongue.

"I told you we would know them!" Nora shouted, pointing one finger at Mint who quickly shifted her eyes to the boisterous ginger girl.

"Actually, I think I said that," Yang suggested, giving Nora a cool smile.

"Well I was thinking it," Nora mumbled, bringing her finger away from Mint's face.

"Doesn't count," Ren said as the entire table except for Mint and Emerald burst into laughter.

Everyone shifted their gaze to Mint as they waited for her to say something. The small girl just sat stock still in her seat as her eyes shifted from person to person.

"I… It's just… I have to go," Mint stammered, grabbing her tray from in front of her and quickly dashing away from the group of friends. "Talk to you later, Yang!" She called out behind her as she disappeared into the crowd of students milling around the cafeteria.

The table just sat in shocked silence at the sudden departure. "What was that about?" Ruby finally asked, directing her question at Emerald.

The dark-skinned girl shrugged her shoulders. "Beats me, she can be rather… odd when it comes to talking to people."

"That's one way to put it." Weiss said.

"You'll get used to it if she continues hanging around."

"If?" Pyrrha asked, catching onto the word choice.

"She's only here for the tournament," Emerald responded slowly making her way to the spot Mint had just left open.  
"Shame, she seems like a fun chick to have around," Yang said with an air of disappointment, looking back at the spot that Mint had vanished into.

"How'd you guys meet?"  
"We kinda bumped into each other outside our room," Yang responded looking back at Emerald, "we talked for a bit and I invited her to dinner."

"Interesting, wonder why she was down by you guys' dorm," Emerald said with a slight frown also looking at where her teammate had disappeared.

"Probably just got lost," Nora suggested.

Emerald shrugged and returned her gaze back to the group. Slowly settling down into Mint's seat she locked eyes with Yang before slowly asking, "So, what did she all tell you?"

* * *

Mint rushed back to her room that she shared with the rest of her teammates. Running down hallway after hallway without a second thought, every person that she flew past braced for some sort of impact that never seemed to come. The girl that they were preparing for seemingly vanished into thin air.

Having memorized the hallways of this school before, Mint was able to find her room with relative ease. Within what seemed like seconds to her, she arrived at the door and quickly unlocked it. She hastily entered and closed the door behind her taking a quick glance around to make sure she was alone. After confirming her solitude, she quickly walked past her bed and sat on one of the desks placed haphazardly into the corner of the room.

The room itself was quite barren of any sort of decorations or identifying features that showed the personalities of those who called the dorm home. It served its purpose and nothing else. Four beds covered the room walls, placed so they allotted the most amount of space in the center of the room. The two desks were shoved into whatever wall space remained, one of which in the somewhat darker of the corners as requested by the green-eyed girl now resting on it.

The girl sat there, eyes closed, her chest rising and falling with practiced, methodical breaths. Slowly her heart began to settle as the panic that had taken her a few minutes ago dissipated to a small thrum in the back of her head. She finally opened her eyes to gaze around at the bleak white walls surrounding her.

' _Its alright, you were just gathering recon… yeah recon.'_ The girl thought to herself as she sat up a bit straighter. She settled into a cross-legged posture on the desk and relaxed, closing her eyes once more and letting a smile grace her face. She felt a small load evaporate off her as the once raven-black hair faded to a lighter color, one side stopping at a warm, chocolate brown and the other a light strawberry pink with strands of creamy white.

Neo opened her eyes to reveal that they too had reverted to their normal, albeit inversed from her hair, color scheme. She breathed a sigh of relief as her aura relaxed. It wasn't exactly tiring to the experienced criminal, but even keeping the small disguise was like having a small weight strapped to your person. Something that you could get used to but it always felt good to let it go for a moment.

' _Even if Emerald did have a problem with it, what's she going to do about it?'_ Now that the shock of her partner in crime discovering her amongst the enemy had worn off, Neo realized that she had nothing to fear. She had her own way of carrying out the mission, and if getting cozy with a certain blonde helped progression, then what's a girl to do?

Neo eased herself back against the wall, stretching her legs in front of her and letting them dangle off the desk. She did have to admit to herself that things were going a lot better than she could have possibly imagined. Neo had only meant to look around team RWBY's dorm to see what they were up to. She had not expected Yang Xiao Long to literally bump into her.

' _She smelled like a campfire'_ Neo remembered as she smiled at the thought of the blonde joking with her and helping the smaller girl to her feet. For once in the girl's life, she felt like she had a normal conversation with another decent human that didn't involve plotting and scheming to the detriment of others.

" _We're on a date,"_ the blonde had said. Sure it had been a joke, a slight tease to her new friend, but even the thought sent a slight flutter through Neo's heart. Neo frowned at this sensation, not exactly sure what it was and why it had happened. She thumped her fist against her chest to see what would happen and when nothing did the small criminal just leaned back again and let her smile grace back onto her face. She closed her eyes and let her mind float through the past couple hours in bliss.

"Oh, the trouble we could get into Miss Xiao Long," Neo said out loud to the apparently empty room.

"And what kind of trouble would that be Neo."

The silky voice jolted Neo out of her dreamlike state as her eyes flew open to search for the source although she already had a sinking feeling in her stomach that told her who it was. Sure enough, sitting on the bed was a woman with a beige leather, sleeveless jacket open to show a sarashi wrapped around her chest exposing her stomach. The woman also wore tight black pants, held up by a leather belt adorned with multiple pouches. Long black hair covered one of her eyes with the other staring right at Neo, shimmering with a fiery gold light.

"Um… I… it's nothing mam," Neo stammered as Cinder continued to contemplate the small girl. Neo mentally scolded herself for somehow not hearing her boss enter the room.

"From the look on your face, it is much more than nothing," Cinder stated, her voice flowing over Neo like waves of silk. "Don't make me ask again child."

Neo once again mentally hit herself as she realized that she had let her outward expression betray her, feeling a small bead of sweat forming on her head. Neo straightened her features into a more business-like demeanor to hide the alarm bells and hammering heartbeat she currently felt inside.

"I was just performing some recon on the RWBY girls," Neo reported, only telling a half lie to Cinder and hoping that the woman didn't catch on.

Cinder narrowed her eyes at the statement, disappointment etched through her features. The woman stood up from her bed and crossed her arms. "Did I not explicitly tell you that your job here was to help with the first round of the tournament and nothing more?"

"I know that mam, I just thought-"

"Don't think," Cinder said, anger creeping into her voice, "Obey."

"Yes mam…" Neo found it hard to maintain eye contact with the almost overwhelming presence in front of her. Her resolve held though as she continued to look into the fiery eyes. Cinder just tilted her head slightly and seemed to contemplate something as she matched Neo's stare.

"Although," Cinder said in a much gentler tone as she slowly strode across the room, "it could be useful having a person inside their little group." Cinder stopped before the small girl, amber eyes piercing into the neopolitan set. Bringing one hand up she let it slide across the small criminal's cheek, a smile softening Cinder's features. "You have my permission to continue _causing trouble_ with Miss Xiao Long."

With that Cinder turned and stepped over to the door, opening it before locking eyes one last time with Neo "Keep me informed." Cinder left the room, closing the door with a soft thud that matched the sound Neo's heart made as it sunk to the floor.

 _"Crap…"_

* * *

 **A/N: "Don't think, Obey" GAAHH that is one of my favorite lines from this series. Glad I was able to find a place for it in my story. Any who Yang and Neo/Mint have finally found their paths crossed and now who knows what "trouble" could pop up. Decided to go with Mint for her alter ego name to keep with the ice cream theme. Sorry for the less than steady publishing schedule I'm on right now. I'm having trouble finding motivation to do a lot of things right now and I'm trying to push through it. I genuinely enjoy writing this its just an attitude thing right now. On a separate note, I tried to practice being more descriptive with settings and such in this chapter so let me know how it seams to you guys. As always, my deepest thanks for continuing to read and especially those of you who are supporting with a follow or a favorite. Leave a review if you've got a comment or question and I will make sure to answer to the best of my ability in the next chapter's note.**

 **Guest: Alrighty then, calm down there Atlas.**

 **AquaX: I always have fun writing female villains (hence one of the main characters in this story) and Cinder is just so bad (in a good way). I'm glad I'm giving her some justice. My next story I'm planning is actually going to have Cinder as one of the main characters and I'm really looking forward to starting that.**

 **-Thank you kindly**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Students milled about Beacon's grand courtyard, enjoying the few moments of freedom from classes before the official launch of festivities. Some were coming and going through the massive stone archways that flanked the large bricked path as they either left or attempted to board some of the massive airships ferrying people back and forth from Vale. Some were simply enjoying their lunches out under the afternoon sun, chatting with friends about local gossip or strategies they might employ during the Vytal Tournament. The rest of the students simply basked in the heat, resting against the slowly changing trees, or the night cooled rocks that scattered around the grassy landscape.

Amongst this last group, Yang Xiao Long had found her favorite perch on top of the largest stone in the area. Set slightly off to the right of the large bricked path that stretched from the front gate to the ship docks, she had grown to like this particular rock for its dominating view over the courtyard and also being just far enough away from the general populace that the murmur of passing voices could almost be mistaken as a slight breeze echoing through the grand stone structures. She laid herself down, enjoying the cool stone against her stomach and looked out over the courtyard, taking in the autumn leaves and dull green banners billowing in the small gusts of wind finding their way through. Yang paid particular interest to the students coming and going from the area, looking at them over her aviator sunglasses so she wouldn't miss what she was looking for.

It was this last thing that was serving as a minor annoyance for the blonde-haired girl. Try as she might, she just could not catch a glimpse of a certain black haired beauty. It had been a few days since she had invited Mint to eat dinner with her and her friends and ever since she had run off that day, Yang had not seen her.

' _I hope she didn't get scared off_ ' Yang thought to herself as she mulled over the final events from that day. They seemed to be having an alright enough time, maybe a few hiccups here and there, but no one got injured and that was always a good thing… sometimes. It wasn't until Emerald showed up that Mint had gotten all jittery. Yang couldn't figure out for the life of her why though as Emerald always seemed like an alright enough chick whenever they talked. The only thing Yang could think of was that there might be some inter-team problems going on that weren't being mentioned.

Yang had tried to talk to Emerald about Mint but she always got some weird answer about the girl being just generally awkward around people. She had even tried to chat up Mercury about it, having to resist the urge to barf at his attempts to flirt with her. All she managed to get out of him was that Mint existed, even though sometimes he seemed to forget that part.

Alas, all Yang could do was keep an eye out for her new black haired friend. Yang let out an audible and set her head back against the cool stone, figuring she might as well just stop worrying about the matter and get a nice nap in. If she sees her again, great, if not then she can't spend her few precious hours of relaxation on a constant vigil. She'll just go with the flow and eventually bump into her again.

Smiling at this final decision, Yang closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the sun rays on her back. She spent a solid hour flitting in and out of consciousness as more students passed through the courtyard. It wasn't until an unmistakable high pitch squeal filled the air that Yang's eyes flew open. Raising her head from her clasped hands in front of her, she stared out towards the source of the disturbance. Finally settling on the air ship that must have just arrived a few seconds ago, she let out a small chuckle as she recognized the billowing red cloak and crimson highlights of Ruby walking away from the ship alongside Weiss. The white-haired heiress was grinning slightly as she rolled her eyes at her leaders outburst of excitement.

Yang shook the sleep from her head as she refocused her eyes on the traveling pair. She remembered something about Weiss saying that she needed to pick up some supplies from Vale for the upcoming events and Ruby had eagerly volunteered to accompany her on the pretense of looking out for additional parts for Crescent Rose. Yang felt a glow of warmth in her chest as she stared proudly at her chatty sister who, just a few months ago, was complaining about not needing to make any new friends.

"I guess milk can't solve everything little sis," Yang said, more to the stone than anyone else. She continued to watch her two teammates walk down the pathway, talking about whatever had made Ruby excited in the first place and carrying the spoils of their trip in a couple of shopping bags. The two continued to walk until they came near the spot where Yang was currently settled as Ruby instinctually looked over at the perch. Seeing the instantly recognizable mane of golden hair on top of the rock, Ruby instantly steered Weiss over to the rock. Yang laughed at Weiss' protests as the blonde slowly got up and slid down the rock to greet her sister.

"Heya ladies, how'd the shopping go?" Yang asked as Ruby slid to a stop in front of her.

"It went well," Weiss huffed, removing her hand from Ruby's grasp and massaging her now sore shoulder. "I think we've got everything we need for the next couple of weeks."

"Not everything," Ruby grumbled as she set her bag down.

"We didn't need _four_ packages of cookies Ruby."  
"Speak for yourself." Ruby shot her nose up into the air as Weiss rolled her eyes again.

"I think Weiss knows what's best in this case Rubes," Yang chuckled as she reached over and ruffled her younger sister's hair.

Ruby puffed her cheeks, sticking out her tongue at her older sister resulting in renewed giggles from the blonde.

"So what did the ice queen allow you to get," Yang said with renewed protests from the snowy haired girl next to her. Ruby's demeaner instantly changed with the altered topic, her silvery eyes lighting up as she rummaged into her bag.

"Ooh! I went into that one parts store that Pyrrha told us about and they had all sorts of stuff for Crescent Rose," the redhead squealed excitedly, pulling out various odd shaped metal pieces. "You know how I noticed the slight pull I was getting from the trigger when we were sparring with SSSN a few days back. Well I think I can fix that with this neat little pneumatic…" And with the techno garble, Yang's brain tuned out as the three girls started walking back to Beacon.

As they walked, Ruby continued to chatter on about the various upgrades she had planned for Crescent Rose, later splitting off to head to the school workshop. Ruby near enough sprinted off towards the desired direction as Weiss rolled her eyes again at the leader's almost endless energy.

"You know if you keep doing that, they're going spin right out one of these days," Yang teased, prodding Weiss with her elbow as the heiress shot a glare at her.

"I just wonder sometimes," Weiss sighed, "how she manages to keep up all that energy."

"She's been like that since the day she could walk," Yang answered back, smiling as Ruby disappeared around a corner, nearly bowling down a few students in the process. "Heck even before that Dad could barely keep track of her when she would just start crawling off in a random direction. If you didn't keep a constant eye on her she would just speed away without a trace."

"Not much has changed then," Weiss said, letting out a small giggle at the mental image of an infant Ruby.

"Yeah there were plenty of near heart attacks."

With that, both girls walked back to the dorm as Yang shared more childhood stories at Ruby's expense. This continued until they both reached the door, Yang pushing forward to open the door for Weiss seeing as her hands were otherwise full.

"We still don't know how she ended up on top of the roof but Dad near enough lost it. I still remember him researching online for child leashes." Yang said, completing her last story as she kicked her shoes off into the corner.  
Weiss burst out in renewed laughter, placing the supply bags onto her neatly organized desk and starting to unpack each of the items into their carefully picked spots.

"Wonder where Blake is?" Weiss said as she finished stacking the last few boxes of power bars into the cupboard next to Yang's desk.

"I think I heard her say something about having a mushy date with Sun all day," Yang said, blowing out her cheeks and making kissing noises.

"Doubtful that she put it that way," Weiss reprimanded as she shook her head at the blonde's manner.

"She may not have said it, but we all know she was thinking it," Yang shot back, leaning back against her bedpost and shooting Weiss a large grin.

"Only in your mind."

"If you say so princess."

Weiss just sighed in resignation, settling down to her desk as Yang basked in her personal victory over the heiress. As the white-haired girl finished putting away her bags Yang sat down on Blake's empty bed and relaxed back, her mind wandering away from the small cozy room she was currently in. When the dust finally settled, her thoughts drifted back to pair of glowing green eyes and the person they belonged to. Yang once again pondered her missing friend and thought back to her rather odd mood.

"Hey Weiss."

"Hmm," The heiress looked up from the article she was currently reading on her scroll, gazing at Yang staring up into the bottom of her own bed.

"What'd you think of Mint?" Yang asked, breaking her eye contact with a particularly interesting wooden support and looking over at her teammate. She tried to see if her question sparked any reaction in the heiress. It wasn't that Yang didn't trust her own judgement of people. More she wanted to see what the admittedly more logical heiress thought of the new girl.

Weiss thought for a second, trying to remember what Yang was talking about. Finally, her own mind recalled the small girl who suddenly appeared at the dinner table all those days back. That night had been one of the odder dinners she had experienced here. She took another minute, carefully thinking about the events surrounding the mystery woman and how she had interacted with each of her friends. Weiss played back the stare down between Pyrrha and the mystery girl while also recalling the way she bolted after Emerald had shown up to join them. Everything about her just seemed…

"Interesting…"

"Interesting?" Yang questioned back, trying to gauge the obvious layers of subtext that went into that one word. Her head spun with the possibilities and finally she just stopped and waited for Weiss who was taking another moment to gather her thoughts.

"I'm… not quite sure," she finally said, looking out the window for something that might give her inspiration to describe the newest oddity in her life.

"How can you not be sure?"

"Well I've only had one interaction with her and she didn't exactly give me much to work with," Weiss responded looking back at Yang.

"But…" Yang said slowly, twirling her hand in the air as she tried to spur Wiess to give her a concrete answer.

"But what?" Weiss responded, looking confused at what else the blonde wanted from her.

"Aaagggh," Yang groaned, letting her head fall back as she looked exasperatedly at Weiss, "But what's your gut say about her."

"I try not to let my gut tell me what to think of people anymore."

"What's that supposed to mean?"  
Weiss just rolled her eyes and scooted her chair out from her desk to face Yang. She clasped her hands together and rested them on her crossed legs, leaning back as she tried to explain.

"You know how when I met your sister she blew a crater into the courtyard?"

Yang thought back to her first few interactions with Weiss, remembering her sisters fevered description of the events that led to them meeting.

"Yeah what about it?"  
"Well…" Weiss said hesitantly, scooting a touch back from Yang in the process, "My _gut_ feeling on her at the time was that she was a complete imbecile who was completely incapable of doing anything right." Yang sat forward and glared at Weiss as the heiress straightened up in her chair in response to the new aggressive stance.

"What I mean," Weiss started, trying to defuse the bomb in front of her, "is that my first impressions of her were off. I mean what were your first impressions of me."  
"I thought you were a stuck up, arrogant brat," Yang rattled off without a moments hesitation.

"And now that you've gotten to know me…"  
"Well…." Yang said putting a hand under her chin in mock contemplation.

"HEY!" Weiss complained, staring daggers at the blonde in front of her who was now laying back on Blake's bed, shaking with laughter.

"Alright, alright I see your point," Yang said finally managing to catch her breath as she clutched at her sides and smiled at the frown of disapproval on the heiress' face. "I'm just saying that Mint seemed nice enough to me."  
"I don't know… there was something off with the way she was acting with everyone."

"She was just nervous meeting so many people is all."  
"Maybe…" Weiss huffed, slumping slightly at the blonde's determined look. When Yang continued to look at her Weiss just sat back up and moved her chair over to her desk again. "You asked for my opinion and that's it. There's something off with her."

"You need to be more trusting," Yang said as she laid back down onto the bed and found her favorite wooden support to stare at again.

"Spend a day around my father's company and you'll learn rather quickly not to trust people at face value," Weiss said softly. Yang broke her gaze and looked down her body at the heiress. Her lips were curved into a frown as she looked at her desk without actually seeing. Yang slowly got up and approached her friend, resting a hand on her shoulder.

Weiss felt a warmth spread from the point of contact as she looked up into the concerned pools of lilac. Yang gave her a comforting smile as Weiss returned it with a smaller one of her own.

"Sorry, sometimes I forget that not everyone sees things the way I do."

"It's no problem," Weiss finally managed as she looked back out the window. Yang nodded and took her hand off Weiss' shoulder.

"You're not surrounded by those stuffy business types anymore," Yang said, keeping her voice at Weiss' softened level, "not everyone here has plans to stab you in the back."

Weiss sighed, "Maybe your right…" Looking back at Yang, the girl contemplated the blonde's almost motherly warmth. The icy feeling inside finally thawed as she let another small smile grace her face. "Listen if you're really that curious about Mint, just go to her room and talk to her. It's the easiest way of figuring out if something's wrong."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Yang said, taking a step back and stretching her arms into the air. "I just don't want to run into anything I shouldn't and disturb Em or the rest of them."  
"I highly doubt that'll be a problem," Weiss said, standing up and moving towards her own bed to get some rest. "I don't think Emerald's the type of person that will mind."

* * *

 _Knock Knock Knock_

"Who is it now?" Emerald groaned in frustration, cursing the unannounced visitor. Sitting up from her bed, she looked towards Mercury sitting on his own bed reading some comic.

"How am I supposed to know?" Mercury sighed back, not looking up from his comic or making any move to go answer the door.

Emerald slowly stood up from her place of rest, stretching her stiff back and making her way slowly to the door. Putting on her usual false smile mastered through many years of deceiving unsuspecting marks, she cracked open the door and looked out at the murderer of her relaxing evening. To her utmost dismay, she was meet with a large mane of wild blonde hair, piercing lilac eyes and a wide grin that almost made the green haired girl sick.

It took every ounce of her training not to close the door on the blonde-haired intruder but she had to keep up appearances for the sake of the mission. Emerald took a breath and flung the door open giving her best smile to her new guest.

"Hey Em!" Yang Xiao Long stood in the doorway maintaining her cocky grin and staring expectedly at Emerald. The street thief inwardly rolled her eyes, keeping her outward appearance as welcoming as possible while Mercury finally put his book down and rested his back against the barren wall across from the door to watch the show.

"Heya Yang, how's it going," Emerald said, ignoring her partner's now rapt attention.

"Oh you know, just getting ready for the festivities," Yang responded while she rolled her shoulders and stretched her back.

"I know how that feels. I was just _trying_ to get some rest in after our team practice," Emerald explained, trying to get the undertones through the brawler's thick skull.

"How's that working for you?" Yang asked, not catching on in the slightest.

"Eh, I'm getting by," Emerald said, shrugging her shoulders and giving Yang a small smile while resigning herself to another of the fun little conversation that entailed having "friends".

"Kind of hard to get a moment of peace and quiet when I have to be babysitting this one all day," Emerald called out as she shot a look back to Mercury as the silver haired boy rolled his eyes. Emerald stuck out her tongue and gave her best laugh as she turned back to look at Yang, the blonde joining in on the laughing at Mercury's expense. Silence filled the hallways as the two girls stopped, Yang rocking back and forth on her heels while Emerald just continued to stand in the door waiting for the cursed blonde to just get to the point.

"Sooooooo…" Emerald finally said after the silence became almost insufferable, "is there something I can help you with."  
"Yeah actually," Yang said, snapping up as she finally caught onto Emerald's attempt at getting some sort of purpose out of the conversation at hand. "I was wondering if you guys happened to know where Mint is? I haven't seen her around and I was wondering if she got scared off." Emerald took a second to remember who they were talking about, finally recalling the alias Neo had concocted during her little dinner date with Team RWBY the other day.

"Oh, ummm…" Emerald stuttered, trying to play off the brief lapse in memory as just trying to remember where her teammate was. "I don't know actually. Wouldn't surprise me if she did run off somewhere."

"Oh… ok," Yang said dejectedly. She started to shuffle her feet and rub a hand across the back of her head as worry filled her eyes.

"Don't take it the wrong way Yang," Emerald quickly said as she noticed the look creeping across the blonde's face, "She's a massive introvert. Likes to keep to the shadows a lot." Yang looked up, confusion slowly replacing the concern. "Really socially awkward," Emerald emphasized, trying to drive the point home.

Yang thought for a second, letting her face settle back to normal as she recalled her earlier conversation with Weiss about how the smaller girl seemed odd. The blonde simply shrugged her shoulders, not understanding how people could be uncomfortable around people.

"Well if she crawls out of the shadows let her know that I was looking for her," Yang said, deciding to let Emerald get back to her moment of relaxation. "She seemed pretty cool when we were talking, maybe I can get her out of her shell."

"I would pay to see someone capable of doing that," Emerald said, chuckling a little bit as she thought back to the few times her and Neo interacted. Anyone who could get that weird little pipsqueak to talk can have her. Maybe then she could finally come into her dorm without having to check every corner to ensure that she could have some private time.

"Careful Em, I'll hold you to that," Yang teased, giving the girl in front of her a sly smile, "I'll have you know that I'm a world class expert in getting introverts to come to the fun side of life. If you want proof, look at my sister. She would never have made friends without me."

Emerald shook her head, laughing at the blonde's feeble attempts at looking impressive. "I'll take your word for it."

"You know I bet if you hang around," Mercury called out from his little corner, "our little friend might come back soon. She's got to eventually and we can have a nice talk while we wait." Mercury patted a spot on his bed next to him as he shot Yang a look that brought a slight amount of bile to the top of her throat.

"I think I'll pass," Yang groaned as Emerald shot a glare back at the wannabe smooth talker. "None of us know when she'll be back and I don't want to keep bugging Emerald."

"Wise decision," Emerald mouthed as she once again looked at the uneasy girl slowly backing away from the door. "Have a good day, I'll be sure to tell Mint that you checked in when she gets here," Emerald said out loud as she slowly closed the door.

"Thanks a lot Em," Yang managed before the door finally shut and Emerald spun on her heels to slowly pace back to her place of zen.

"Nice try Casanova," she shot at Mercury as he started laughing at the green haired girl's reactions. She just rolled her eyes to the ceiling and let herself fall into bed, massaging her head to try and ward off the growing headache threatening to take over her peaceful afternoon.

* * *

Yang wandered down the hallway from Emerald's room, pondering the information she had just gained. Turns out Weiss' gut could be right from time to time. Maybe Mint was just an odd, introverted human being. Even through all this testimony, Yang still couldn't shake the feeling that there was something in the tiny girl that everyone was missing. The charming person she had meet in that hallway existed, it just took Yang's self-proclaimed awesomeness to bring it out.

The blonde smiled at this thought, looking up at the large lofted ceiling and allowing herself to walk down the barren grey corridors without thinking. Turning around corner after corner without seeing another soul, Yang soon let herself move on autopilot as she started thinking on her next move. Unfortunately, her autopilot didn't come with sonar technology because after turning around a third identical, supposedly empty corner, she felt a small presence ram into her body. Taking a step back, Yang looked wildly around, trying to find the source of the bump.

Her heart jumped a little as her eyes found a small figure dressed in black sprawled across the ground. The girl had her eyes closed as she groaned at the sudden change in elevation. After a moment, the startling green eyes opened to look up at the blonde currently hurrying to help her up.

"Ok, this time it was your fault," Mint moaned, recognizing the mess of golden hair and light lilac eyes. She slowly let her head fall back, just resting on the ground for a second while the drum show going on in her head steadily died to a dull throb.

"Noted," Yang chuckled after seeing that no permanent damage was done, "Guess that makes you the queen next time we hang out." Yang stood over Mint, waiting for the green-eyed girl to come to her senses. At the blonde's words, Mint's eyes shot open, the small girl sitting up and leaning back with one arm behind her as she slowly rubbed her head.

"Next time?" she said, looking up at Yang with her head slightly cocked to the side. She looked for any sense of trickery or deceit in the blonde's face but after seeing nothing but the usual cocky smile, she stood herself up. Dusting off her skirt and vest, she looked back at Yang and waited for an answer.

"Yeah next time," the blonde said as she watched Mint slowly get situated. Yang reached out to help, straightening one of the bows tying the smaller girl's pigtail together. Mint flinched away at first but quickly realized what Yang was doing and let her continue, feeling slightly warm with the close proximity.

"What makes you think that there'll be a next time with you constantly knocking me over every time I see you," Mint said, trying to put the same air of superiority into her voice that she recalled Yang using against her the first time they meet.

"Hey, it's not my fault that you're falling for me every time you're in my presence," Yang said, shooting the small girl a sly grin while wiggling her eyebrows. Mint let out a soft groan at Yang's attempt at humor as the blonde giggled at the desired response.

"Anyway," Yang continued, "I am still your guide to everything Beacon. Would be pretty lame of me to abandon you after the first tour."

"You mean there's more to your tales," Mint said, raising her eyebrow at the blonde's words.

"Of course, there's so much more to be told and I'm not letting you go without the full Xiao-Long tour experience."

"Wow, guess I didn't realize what I was getting into when I hired you," Mint snickered, "I've never had anyone offer to treat me to quite an experience."  
"Sounds like you've had some crappy guides then," Yang said, pulling Mint to her side and wrapping an arm around her small shoulders, "Good thing you've got a friend like me then. I'm the best in the business!"

Mint felt the warmth creep back through her again as her heart rate increased causing her face to flush slightly. "Yeah… good thing," she said softly, letting a small smile grace her face and wondering what was causing her to heat up so badly.

"So how about a trip through the city of Vale," Yang suggested, looking down at the girl still trapped by her arm. "We can check out the Vytal festival decorations. They have so many booths being set up and the smell of the food from the fairgrounds keeps wafting up to the school grounds and making me hungry."

"I think I could go for that… so long as my leader says it's alright," Mint said hesitantly, thinking back to Cinders words from before.

"Why would she have a problem with it?" Yang asked, letting go of Mint as she stepped in front of her.

"We've just got a lot going on," Mint sighed, "A lot of things are happening and I've gotta make sure nothing goes wrong."

"With the Vytal tournament?"

"Yeah… the tournament," Mint replied slowly, catching onto the lifeline being tossed to her. "It's very important for the team's plans for the future."

Yang paused for a moment, thinking to herself as Mint stood rubbing her arm. "I guess that makes sense," she finally said, shrugging and looking down at Mint, "But you've got to take some time to relax for a moment. Can't let the world bury you with things out of your control. I know full well what that can do to a person." A flash of pink flew through Yang's eyes as she looked through the girl in front of her to the long-buried memories.

Mint noticed the thousand-yard stare that Yang was giving her and put a hand on the blonde's arm, trying to bring her back to reality. Worry filled the green-eyed girl as her new friend slowly sank into whatever trance she had found herself in.

"You alright Yang?" she said carefully, trying to get through the fog clouding the blonde's mind. The words cut through as Yang seemingly found her way back to the present day.

"Yeah… its fine," Yang affirmed, her voice low and filled with unknown thoughts, "Just some stuff that happened recently." Mint felt her heart sink as she guessed what events had caused the blonde so much grief. "But I'm over it now, you can thank my team for that," Yang smiled, trying to reassure the smaller girl that everything was fine, even though it did nothing to ease the pit that was slowly forming inside of Mint.

"If you need to talk about it, I have some understanding with… unfortunate experiences."

"Maybe another time, I don't know if I'm ready to talk about it with other people quite yet."

"Well maybe if I find some time to myself we can discuss it over a meal at the fairgrounds," Mint suggested, stepping back from Yang, "It's just that we've been spending a lot of time on the upcoming plans these past few weeks so I really need to see it to the end."

"Is that the reason why I haven't really seen you around recently?" Yang questioned, feeling slightly better now that the conversation had moved on.

"Yeah, I'm able to think better when I'm alone and this needs to be pulled off. A lot of time has been poured into this and… a friend is counting on me pulling this off," Mint said, catching herself before she said Roman's name and blew all the work he had put into this mission.

"Well then," Yang said, checking her belt pouches for something. She pulled out a pen and a small piece of paper with a neatly written note on it. The blonde's heart hammered as she recognized the numbers scrawled across the page, igniting more memories of a cocky smile and the frilly pink umbrella. Quickly ripping the blank bottom off the note, she crammed the rest of it into her pocket. Mint's eyes widened as Yang did this, recognizing the piece of paper and remembering the words she had written on it when all the blonde knew was Neo.

Yang didn't notice, quickly jotting down a new set of words and numbers onto the piece of paper and thrusting it into Mint's hand. "This way I won't have to come looking for you again. Let me know if you have some free time before the tournament," Yang said as she turned away from the small girl and slowly started walking the way Mint had just come from.

"Alright but next time make sure your paying attention, I really hate running into you like this…" Mint called down the hallway. Yang laughed and shot the girl a quick thumbs up before turning around the next corner and disappearing out of sight. Mint looked down at the piece of paper in her hand, her chest filling with helium as she read a set of numbers written across the top and a haphazardly group of words scribbled under them.

 **Xiao Long Guided Tours**

 **Take a Break and Call if You Want a Good Time**

* * *

 **A/N: We back once again folks. Sorry for the hiatus (triggered) I put you guys through for this chapter. I wrote chapter 7 right in the beginning of a long stint of projects, exams and other fun things that comes with the finishing up of my second to last semester of engineering college. It was starting to feel like I was forcing myself to write and I really didn't want that considering this is a hobby that I want to enjoy doing and not just add it to the pile of stress mounting on top of me. So now with four final projects, two final exams and a wedding in the family put behind me I can finally start enjoying writing this story again. I didn't completely forget about all of this though. My random ideas notebook has a good section on this story with all the wonderful things I have planned for Xiao-Long and Neopolitan. My plan is to start into the events in Volume 3 after the next chapter.** **So without further ado, we begin our tale once again.**

 **PS: Sorry if this chapter seems a little rusty. I need to get back into the swing of things but a month and a half of not writing will do awful things to a person, same as any skill. Thank you for reading and please leave a review if you can for anything I might be slipping on or other comments/questions regarding the tale I am spinning.**

 **Aqua X: Thanks a ton for the praise. It means a lot to me considering the whole reason I fell in love with RWBY was the character's personalities and the way they play off of each other (giant weapons and awesome fight scenes also help). I'm trying my best to nail the way these characters act although at times its starting to feel like I'm over simplifying them. Also with the dialogue problems you pointed out, I try and write character dialogue without perfect grammar and word choice on purpose due to the fact that not a lot of people talk in perfect sentence structure all the time (a certain snowy haired heiress being the exception). I try and just write dialogue as how I think the characters would say it given the circumstances at hand even though I do admit that I let my own grammatically awful speech bleed through sometimes. Thanks again for the advice though and I'll try and keep it in mind for future chapters.**

 **-Thank you kindly**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Call for a good time huh?

Emerald, Neo and Mercury sat around their room waiting for Cinder to get back from a meeting with the White Fang's leader about making sure they were ready to strike when the appropriate signal appeared. Rhythmic breathing could be heard coming from Mercury's bed as the boy enjoyed what he thought was a well-deserved nap. His boots were strewn across the floor with his artificial leg lazily propped up against the wall. Neo herself was leaning into one of the corners of the room, sitting atop one of the unused desks with one leg sprawled across the top and the other hung delicately off the side. The ice cream themed girl was enjoying the lack of strain being put on her aura.

She took the cue from Mercury and let herself relax from the image she was forced to don whenever she went into public. Her pink and brown hair flowed down out of the pigtails she had grown accustomed to these past few days and she had even dressed herself in a little of her usual attire. Skipping her favorite white and pink jacket due to the noon heat wafting in from the open window, she wore a black tank top with her black beaded necklaces haphazardly dangling over her chest. She wore her usual black pants and had her lacey pink umbrella carefully placed across her lap, one hand gripping the curved handle while the other rested on the deceptively sturdy canopy material. The entire ensemble felt like a second skin to her, much more comforting than the disguise she had decided on all those days ago which was now carefully resting on the undisturbed bed that she had been assigned and had been largely ignoring the entire time she had been here.

Emerald had decided to spend the day tidying up the already impeccable room in the hopes of avoiding getting reprimanded by the boss when she eventually came back to the trio of criminals. She had already straightened up her side of the room and gave up on trying to make Mercury pick up his odd smelling boots. She moved steadily across the room, removing anything in her path that might give Cinder any grievances.

Neo had largely ignored her crusade, choosing instead to revel in the comfortable few minutes in which she was allowed to be herself again. Her mind wandered around to various place, scolding itself whenever it dared remind her of the mission at hand. Unfortunately, this left her with very little to think about as the mission was a pretty big part of her life now. The only other things she could dwell on were her now locked up partner which just served to depress the small criminal further, and the other person that was starting to make waves in her life. A flash of yellow flew across her mind as she remembered the conversation her alter ego had held with the blonde girl a few days back. Not for the first time she wondered if she should respond to her new friend, schedule an afternoon out to get away from the planning and preparation.

The only thing that was stopping her was the same line of thought that caused her heart to drop when Emerald finally broke the silence hanging on the small dorm room. The green-haired girl was standing over Mint's attire with one hand on the black blouse and the other holding the carefully folded up piece of paper that had fallen out of the garment where Neo had stashed it.

"Xiao Long Guided Tours?" Emerald said with a laugh continuing to read the little piece of paper. The smaller girl just looked wide-eyed at Emerald, for once stricken to unintentional silence. Of course, to the other two inhabitants of the room this just was par to the course for the mysterious girl and so Emerald read everything she needed to from the large heterochromic eyes staring at the little slip in her possession.

"Wait, the bimbo?" Mercury said slowly, coming out of his nap with a surprising amount of energy and interest in the conversation at hand.

"Yeah, seems she's giving Neo the full Beacon Academy welcoming treatment," Emerald stated, sitting down on the unused bed and reading the note again as if she was looking for any unwritten messages hidden in the hastily scrawled writing.

"Lucky you," Mercury said, finally sitting up and giving Neo a sly smile while the smaller girl just sat stock still, looking from one to the other, " _We_ didn't get the full treatment when we got here."

"Probably cause you're not cute enough for the Xiao Long special treatment." Neo's usually pale cheeks flushed at Emerald's words as Mercury frowned and rolled his eyes in mock indignation.  
"That is some serious favoritism going on here," Mercury finally responded as Neo slowly moved from her perch and stood up facing her partners, "I might have to take it up with her tour manager. Who know's? I might get a discount on my next excursion." Mercury grinned at his little jab while something red-hot slowly coiled inside of Neo. Her eyes lost any semblance of fear or worry and instead went cold.

Neo stared daggers at the boy in the room, slowly taking a step forward as she gripped the canopy of her umbrella tighter and moved one hand to the curved handle. Emerald noticed the movement and thought for a second about letting this go on, if only to see the smaller girl in action. She hadn't had the chance to see Neo fight as the hired criminal was always on solo missions or else guarding that buffoonish Torchwick guy. Unfortunately, her mind moved to the almost certain mess that would occur as the expense of this little test and she thought of how Cinder would greatly disapprove of the risked exposure to the mission.

Emerald quickly stood up and stepped in front of Neo, placing one hand on her shoulder and holding up the little note to her. Neo continued to glare at Mercury, not realeasing her tightened grip on her umbrella.

"Relax," Emerald sighed as she placed a hand on top of Neo's, "he's just being an ass." Neo slowly relaxed her grip on her umbrella and grabbed the piece of paper from Emerald, stuffing it into a small pants pocket.

"Listen," Emerald said softly so Mercury couldn't hear, "Its none of our business if you have a little fun while you're here." Neo's cheeks flushed again at the unsaid implications of Emerald's words. The darker skin girl chuckled at the reaction as her words clearly hit the appropriate nerves. Emerald softly punched Neo across the shoulder in an attempt at showing some sort of comradery which just served to fluster and confuse the smaller girl even further. Emerald just rolled her eyes and continued to stare into the pink and brown set.

"What I mean," Emerald sighed, "is that you're allowed to hang out with other people, and while I don't personally like it, Cinder did say we would have to make friends in order to keep our cover here." Neo relaxed a bit more as Emerald spoke, nodding in understanding as she took in the taller girl's advice.

"Just remember," the green-haired girl said, her voice suddenly growing serious and slightly louder so that even Mercury, who was feigning sleep, could hear. "When the chips are down and Cinder says go, these people are obstacles and as such, we can't be hesitant on eliminating anyone who gets in our way. This includes Xiao-Long and her team. The mission comes first, you understand?"

Neo took a step back and looked into the dark-red eyes of her teammate, seeing the hardened determination and conviction the girl had in Cinder's master plan. The smaller girl tried to steel herself and look for that same determination inside herself that she knew had been in there weeks before. And while that loyalty to the mission was still there, there was a disturbance in the back of her mind and she couldn't help but feel a sense of dread at what Emerald had said. Neo quickly batted this feeling down, scolding herself at the brief lapse of the professionalism that Roman had instilled inside of her all those years ago when she had crawled into his window and gotten the job offer of a lifetime.

After a brief hesitation, Neo straightened herself up and nodded. Emerald let go of Neo's shoulder and slowly walked back to her own bed, sitting down and letting out a small sigh, giving up on her attempt to organize the room. Neo just grabbed her disguise outfit and walked over to the bathroom stepping inside and closing the door.

"I knew this was a mistake," Emerald groaned softly, keeping her voice down to a level that hopefully only Mercury could hear, "Of all the people she had to make buddy buddy with, it had to the bimbo."

"Oh, you're just jealous because someone finds her interesting and not you," Mercury said, keeping his eyes closed while a smile crept onto his face.

"Oh please," Emerald shot back at the silver-haired boy, "for jealousy to exist I would actually have to find someone in this forsaken school to be remotely interesting."

"I'm right here you know," Mercury said finally raising his head from the pillow and looking at Emerald.

"I know what I said."

At that moment Neo walked out of the bathroom, her hair tied up into pigtails by her white bows and her eyes a bright shade of green. Her hair slowly darkened until it resembled the black of her alter ego's clothes that she now wore. Neo slowly walked across the room carrying her umbrella and usual clothes. Turning towards the cabinet kept next to Emerald's bed, she walked past Mercury's resting place and hooked her umbrella on his false leg, sending it to the ground with a loud thud and causing Mercury to sit up and glare at the smaller girl. Neo just shot him a small wicked grin as she walked over to the cabinet and carefully placed her clothes and umbrella inside a small, hidden compartment she had built into it. She gave a brief nod to Emerald and walked out the exit and into the corridors of Beacon.

"What'd she do that for?" Mercury said bitterly, reaching down to lean his leg back against the wall, not worried about any damage to the sturdy structure.

"You deserved it," Emerald sighed back, closing her eyes and allowing herself to relax.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Mercury huffed as he slowly eased himself back down to finish his nap.

* * *

Neo walked down the corridor as she pulled the burner scroll she had "acquired" for this particular mission out of a hidden pouch in her blouse. She just looked at the device without actually doing anything as she walked along, narrowly avoiding students walking back from their various morning adventures. Her steps took her along the hallways until she reached a common room that she had noticed no one ever seem to use.

Taking a quick peek inside, Neo noticed that the room was void of any prying ears. ' _Perfect'_ Neo thought to herself as she crept the door open and walked inside. The room was small and cushy with bear grey walls spanning all four sides. A couple of armchairs sat in the corners with little nightstands next to them each containing a small lamp in case the lighting wasn't enough for the avid reader. Two wooden rectangular tables sat in the middle of the room large enough to fit a team around it for group study or strategizing. Neo could see little scratch marks on the tables obviously from when someone didn't have a pen or paper and felt the need to outline their thoughts for the whole world to see. These tables were surrounded by small desk chairs all tucked neatly in so no one would possibly trip.

Neo walked over to one of the arm chairs and nervously sat down on the edge of the seat as she continued to stare at the scroll in her hand, trying to will it to do what she wanted to happen. Alas the illuminated little device refused to solve all her problems. Taking a moment to steady her breath, Neo started entering in the numbers she had committed to memory the instant she was handed that little slip of paper.

' _Always remember every detail of a job, you never know what might be the lynchpin of the entire operation.'_ This was the excuse she repeated to herself every time she felt her heart glow when the numbers floated across her brain. It was a simple matter of never knowing when she might need the little number.

The scroll started humming as it reached out through the air towards her desired contact, and with every ring came a small hammer in her chest and a renewed doubt in her mind.

 _Ring_

' _Maybe Emerald was right'_

 _Ring Ring_

' _I should just head back to room and forget this'_

 _Ring Ring Ring_

' _OH GOD WHY AM I DOING THIS'_

"Hello?"

' _yay'_

"Heya Yang," Neo responded in a small, mousey tone. Her chest was hammering as she waited for some response on the other end.

"Yeah this is she, who is this," came the voice on the other side of the phone. Neo quickly cleared her throat and sat up a bit straighter in her seat. She took a deep breath as she tried to control herself and just respond like a normal human. The back of her mind screamed out in fury at the unwelcome reactions her body was producing as she slowly regained control. The small girl could not for the life of her figure out why she was freezing up like this. She'd faced down police, hunters, and now she was infiltrating what was probably the most heavily defended area in Vale And now a simple phone call was breaking her down like an amateur.

"Hello?" Yang said again, a bit louder this time and with a twinge of annoyance clear as day in the voice.

"Sorry… yes… um yeah this is Mint," Neo stammered out, cringing at the nervous stammering, "You know from the hallway."

"Oh, hey Mint!" Yang responded, all sign of annoyance or confusion gone, "Yeah kinda hard to forget you after you've run into me so many times."  
"It was only twice," Neo scolded, her nerves slowly melting into annoyance when Yang started chuckling on the other side, "and the second time was still your fault!"

"No one can prove it," came the snide voice as all sense of apprehension left Neo's mind.

"I'm pretty sure the bruise on my tailbone is evidence enough," Neo chided back, collapsing into the armchair with a huff.

"Awww, you want me to kiss it and make it better." Neo shot back up in the chair, her cheeks flushed at the teasing voice on the phone as Yang broke down in fits of laughter. The smaller girl crossed her legs and rolled her eyes as she waited for Yang to slowly recover herself.

"Has anyone ever told you how infuriating you are," Neo said once Yang had regained her breath.

"Only several times," Yang responded, still wheezing with laughter while taking deep breaths of air, "So you looking to book a trip with Xiao-Long Tours. We're a bit booked right now but I think we can make some room for such an important client." Neo was taken aback at the quick swap in topics but just as quickly recovered as she saw an opportunity in the new line of conversation.

"I dunno," Neo said with mock apprehension, playing into Yang's little game, "one of your tour guides has been awful rude to me lately. It'd be a shame, but I might have to book with another company."

"Oh my goodness, I am terribly sorry Ms. Mint," Yang said back in a very professional tone, "I ensure you that we here at Xiao-Long Tours sometimes do not condone that kind of behavior. Please if there is anything this lowly girl can do that could make it up to you…"

Neo giggled at the little act Yang was playing, her eyes rolling as the blonde milked every word. "Well…" she said, hesitating for a second of mock thought, "I hear the city of Vale is quite lovely this time of year and I might be interested in seeing the sights."

"I think it's your lucky day then mam," Yang said, suddenly upbeat, "We happen to be having a special on tours of Vale proper today. Completely free for all small, black-haired girls from Haven."

"Why, I think I might fall into that category", Neo said, matching the improved tone of voice.

' _Sometimes'_ she added in her head as she leaned back into the arm chair.

"Well I don't think anyone saw that coming! You wanna meet me down by the shipyard in about an hour. I need to finish up stuff with the team but the weather is beautiful so the Ice Queen is letting us have one more day off so we can rest up for the big day."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Neo said as trumpets played a little fanfare in her head, "I'll see you in an hour."

"See you then short stuff!"

The call cut out as Yang hung up the scroll. Neo slid down the chair, smiling to herself as she slowly came back to reality. Her own scroll dropped to her side as she looked around the room and reveled in the astounding luck she was having these past few days.

Neo stood up from her chair and pocketed her scroll. Wiping her sweaty hands off on her arms she strolled out of the room with a smug sense of purpose in her step, carefully making her way down towards the front courtyard of Beacon.

* * *

Neo walked out Beacon's grand entrance, taking a moment to bask in the midafternoon sun. Not wanting to waste another moment, she started her walk down the long cobblestone path towards the airship dock. Students milled around her, chatting with each other and heading back and forth towards whatever destinations their little hearts desired. Neo laughed slightly at the thought of these people who had not a care in the world and knew nothing about the small girl currently walking amongst them. She continued admiring how every single one of them couldn't see the trouble brewing on the horizon. It was almost a pity that they couldn't see Neo and her colleagues for what they were. They couldn't see that just four seemingly ordinary people inside their little realities were planning on turning everything upside down.

A little twinge in Neo's head made her slow to a gentle stop as she finished this little thought. Trying to identify whatever was going on in her head, she looked around and looked at each face that passed by her. Some of them smiled at her as they moved along while others gave the smaller girl a curt nod before rushing passed.

Regret wasn't right. No, that little emotion wasn't given to Neo's targets. They were just too silly and caught up in their own little worlds to be given any semblance of pity They were just like every shop keeper that she had ever scouted out for a heist or every officer that she had bat her eyelashes at that let her slip by without a single suspicion. Everyone trusted way too easily and Neo had learned to exploit this little flaw.

Curiosity. That was more like it. Simple curiosity at just how silly these people were to freely hand out their trust to people that they barely knew. Neo had gone her entire life questioning every single person she came across. Why were they in front of her? What did they want from her? And most importantly, what was the end game? What was this person's motive for standing in front of Neo and talking to her? Until Neo knew the answers to these questions she always kept an eye on the person, waiting for them to remove their mask. Waiting for them to prove the smaller girl's theory to be correct. Everyone was always looking out for themselves and they would happily trample over everyone else to get their goals.

It did get very exhausting, always having to question every word coming out of someone's mouth. There were days that Neo just felt empty. Even Roman had his own moments that, even being the most trusted person in her life, sometimes left Neo questioning whether or not she could let her guard down around him. She just wanted someone who she knew wasn't going to abandon her when all the cards hit the table.

"Hey Mint!"

Neo nearly jumped out of her boots as the voice boomed out barely five feet behind her. She turned around to see Yang standing behind her, clutching her sides as she laughed. The smaller girl felt heat rush through her as she frowned at the blonde in front of her.

"You really are infuriating," Neo scolded the blonde as Yang slowly came back to her senses. Yang slowly stood up and took a deep breath before walking the small distance between them, her grin still splitting across her face.

"Aww, did the poor dear get scared by little old me," Yang teased as she wrapped an arm around Neo. Neo felt a different sensation of warmth fill her as she started fiddling with her gloves.

"Not scared, just surprised," Neo stated, not attempting to break the hold that Yang had on her, "Didn't expect you to nearly blow my eardrums out." Neo rubbed her ear to emphasize her point as Yang just rolled her eyes.

"Well crap, I was trying my best to make sure you knew I was here so you didn't ram into me again," Yang said with a sense of false concern

"Hey, I thought we established that last time was your fault," Neo stated matter-of-factly. Yang let go of the smaller girl much to Neo's displeasure as the blonde deliberately stepped in front of her and crossed her arms.

"I don't remember saying anything of the sort," Yang said in a serious tone as she stared down at Neo. As the blonde stood in front of her, she radiated an aura of strength and superiority and if it wasn't for her vast amounts of experience dealing with these types of people it might have actually intimidated the seasoned criminal. That and the grin currently threatening to destroy the mask that Yang was attempting to maintain kind of ruined the mood.

Neo smiled as she looked at the girl, "I'm pretty sure on this one, I was just minding my own business when you came barreling at me and knocked me to the ground." Yang looked slightly confused for a second before the meddlesome grin finally spread across her face. Neo put on her best 'traumatized victim' face as the blonde suppressed her laughter.

"Alright I think you must have hit your head pretty hard there missy 'cause that sounds nothing like what happened," Yang chuckled as she looked at Neo's attempt at a hurt face.  
"I don't know it was all such a blur," the smaller girl theatrically stated, placing a hand on her head in a mock daze, "everything happened so fast."

"Alright, alright, stop with the puppy dog eyes," Yang sighed as Neo smiled at her small victory, "tell you what. Dinner's on me when we get to Vale." The little fanfare started up again inside Neo's head at the prospect of a normal dinner with the blonde.

"I think that sounds fair," Neo said, dropping the traumatized act as she beamed at Yang. The blonde just rolled her eyes at the little game she had just had played on her.

"I think you chose the wrong profession Mint, with acting chops like that you don't need to be a huntress," Yang chided as she shook her head at the smug look of satisfaction growing on her new friend's face.

"Well at least I have something to fall back on if my current line of work doesn't pan out," Neo said shrugging her shoulders. She had to stop herself from laughing as she remembered that technically everything she was doing here at Beacon was an act.

"Alright, let's get out of here before your ego grows too large for the airships to carry," Yang said as she looked past Neo's head towards the docks. A small horn blew behind the smaller girl as she too looked behind her to see the airship currently sitting on the landing pad start preparing to depart. "Oh crap!" Without any warning, Yang grabbed Neo's hand and hastily pulled her towards the docks as the two girls started running to catch the ship before it could leave.

The pair made it just in time with the doors just about to close when they walked up to the ship. Luckily the man working the gate looked up just in time to see a large mane of blonde hair running at him. Neo watched the man's eyes grow wide as he hastily pulled the door back open and allowed the two to board. As Neo passed she saw a clear bead of sweat crawl down the man's neck as Yang shot him a quick smile and boarded with Neo in tow.

With a subtle lurch, the ship took off. Yang quickly walked over to the window and started gazing out at the scenery as they passed it all by. Neo slowly made her way to her blonde friend who barely took notice to the smaller girl's approach. She saw the violet eyes fixated out the window and Neo turned her head to see what was capturing the girl's full attention.

Large sweeping cliffs slowly crawled across her view as she followed the shear drops leading down to the brilliant blue water below. The waves steadily crashed against the large rocks jutting out of the water causing spray to shoot up into the air. The surrounding mountains dominated the rest of the landscape, not allowing a clear view of the horizon, each one standing tall with shining white peeks covered in snow. Resting below these towering goliaths stood a large mass of ever changing colors as the leaves slowly turned in the changing autumn weather. The trees massed together, hiding whatever lurked beneath as evident by the occasional plume of feathers as a nesting of birds were scattered out of their trees by some unknown intruder.

The entire sight was beautiful to be sure but as Neo looked back at her friend, she saw something beyond shear appreciation of a pretty view. The pools of violet shown with almost childlike amazement and a simple smile graced her face that wasn't anything like Yang's usual cocky grin. She showed no teeth and the mischief was gone from her face. She was almost in a state of…

"…Bliss," Neo wondered aloud, letting the last word of her thoughts trail off her tongue.

"Hmm?" Yang hummed, snapping out of her trance as she remembered that there was someone else in the ship with her.

"Oh sorry," Neo quickly said, trying to cover for her escaped thought, "It's just the look on your face."

"What about my face," Yang quipped back, one eyebrow rising in confusion.

"It's just… different than normal," Neo said, struggling to give her thoughts a verbal form, "You're letting your mask slip."

"My mask?" Yang said fully turning to Neo as she wondered what was going on in the tiny girl's head.

"You're usual 'the world is my oyster and I'm about to feast' mask," Neo responded with a smile as Yang chuckled lightly while still maintaining a small level of confusion, "What I'm trying to say is that you looked so peaceful there for a second and it was… odd."

"Oh… I think I got you now," Yang said with a slight hesitation, turning back to the window.

"I don't mean it as anything bad," Neo said hurriedly, trying to recover from the trainwreck she imagined this conversation was turning into, "It's just… you know… um…" Neo stuttered as her insides slowly wound their way around a pole.

"It's fine Mint," Yang quickly reassured the smaller girl as she noticed the ever-increasing shades of red growing across her friend's face, "Just didn't realize that I was doing it is all."

"Sorry," Neo apologized one last time to the continued amusement of Yang, "I was just wondering what you were seeing that was causing you to look so… peaceful."  
Yang looked out the window and thought carefully as the natural scenery slowly thinned to show small signs of civilization. After a few seconds, she carefully opened her mouth and tried an explanation.

"I guess I was just thinking of the first time I arrived at Beacon," Yang answered slowly diving back into her memories, "It was just me and Rubes and everything was changing. I was coming to a new home with new people and a sea of endless possibilities ahead of me. I look out at all of this and see freedom. The freedom to finally break away from everything and get wrapped up in all the adventures I can handle. Heck, maybe even more than I can handle in some cases." Yang laughed at this last remark, thinking of everything she had accomplished and all the stories she had managed to create in the few months that she had been here.

"Freedom…" Neo said as she looked back out at the endless landscape. She tried to see the possibilities that Yang saw. All the little adventures that could be a part of her life. She gazed across the sprawling roads and trees spanning across the horizon and really made an effort to see the world in her new friend's eyes. But instead of seeing the wonder and freedom that Yang found, the smaller girl saw a wall that had to be breached. She saw a warship fly across the horizon that had to be hijacked. And she saw little toy soldiers marching along the ground like ants needing to be dealt with. The coil in her stomach grew unbearably warm as these thoughts ran across her mind causing her to quickly turn away from the window. Her eyes landed on the one thing that seemed to cool the growing inferno inside of her.

Yang had once again lost herself in her thoughts, staring out onto the transforming city as the airship slowly approached the center of Vale. Her smile once again graced her face and the small glimmer had once again been trapped inside the violet eyes. Everything started to calm inside of Neo as she just continued to admire the bliss inside her friend and how she had managed to get lost into a world that Neo seemingly wasn't allowed to enter.

* * *

 **A/N: Man writer's block is a pain. Sorry these chapters are taking so long to come out. I'm having trouble putting my ideas into word form. This is coupled with the fact that I've just been having some motivational issues lately with a lot of stuff going on in my life. But I'm trying to listen to a friend of mine along with some advice that Burnie Burns said on a podcast. Basically I'm trying to get myself in the habit of writing at least something every day. Even if its a little weak I'm just trying to institute some semblance of mental discipline into myself and if I do write something that not quite up to snuff then I just go back and edit and rework until its something I can be proud of. Its all a part of the writing process and something I thoroughly enjoy when I'm able to see the final product and everyone who's enjoying. So please read and leave a review and as always**

 **-Thank you kindly**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Yang continued looking out the window as the airship steadily approached the center of Vale. Her eyes shifted from each tall building and busy street that she passed, remembering the different crazy events that happened through the past few months she had been there. The few places that didn't trigger some memory of hers caused her to think of all the possibilities that each little square foot of city held and all the adventures that waited around each corner.

Her imagination continued to soar through her possible futures as the ship descended onto the heated asphalt surface of the airship docks. A flock of birds scattered as the ship jolted upon impact with the ground. A slight tug on Yang's sleeve brought her back to reality. Her gaze shifted downward to meet a brilliant green pair looking up at her with a sly smile appearing below them.

"I think I lost you there again," Mint said, giving Yang a slight shove with her shoulder. A small pit of guilt formed in the blonde's stomach as she sheepishly smiled down at the girl she was supposed to be playing host to on this little trip.

"Yeah… Sorry 'bout that. Guess I keep getting lost in my thoughts," Yang chuckled giving a shrug and looking over Mint at the students slowly pouring out of the ship.

"It's no big deal," Mint said, shrugging off the apology, "You look like a girl with a lot on her mind and I'm not one to get in the way of a person and their inner monologue."

"Still no excuse for abandoning my tour guide duties," Yang said, redonning her professional tone and grabbing Mint by the shoulder, "I mean if I keep going out of commission then you would be left alone in this dark dangerous city." Yang pulled Mint in close to her as the blonde gave her pitying eyes that were somewhat lessened by the cheap smile that she couldn't keep off her face.

"Oh no! Whatever will I do?" Mint responded in mock fear, rolling her eyes as her face flushed with the proximity to the blonde. Mint felt cozy with the unnatural heat wafting off Yang as she felt herself settle more snugly into the blonde's side. It was all Yang could do not to burst out laughing at the smaller girl, raising an eyebrow at the odd behavior in her friend.

"I have no idea," Yang said as she slowly started to walk towards the exit of the ship with Mint still at her side, "Now I believe I still owe you a date so let's see what's still open for food."

At the word date Mint's eyes flew open as she realized what she had been doing. Almost like a rocket, she shot away from Yang's side with her face growing a brilliant shade of red causing Yang's last reserves of control to leave her as she burst out laughing. Mint just looked at her feet as she followed Yang out of the door, maintaining a five-foot distance from the girl now clutching her sides.

The dock workers looked perplexed as they watched the blonde and raven-haired duo walk away from the ship, one laughing as the other just walked in her stead, looking anywhere but at the taller girl. The two continued to walk as they passed shops and different land marks in the city of Vale, each with their own little story in Yang's eye that she recounted to Mint with eager gusto. Mint for her part continued to take photos with her imaginary camera and listened to the overactive imagination of the blonde. She marveled at the amount of detail Yang poured into each and every story and wondered to herself just how long Yang had held these tales.

As the girls passed by different restaurants, Yang would just proclaim that they weren't good enough for a "first time in Vale" meal. They walked by steakhouses, seafood shacks, and even a snuffy looking French restaurant that had steaming bread bowls at each table being served. Each one came with its own alluring smell wafting out of the open doors, beckoning Mint to walk in and sample a little bit of everything on the menu. Every time the smaller girl would pass by the different eateries she would stop to look at the outdoor menus for all of two seconds before Yang would grab her by the arm and drag the starving girl along the street, deeper into the downtown of Vale.

After what felt like ages of teasing and a bit of odd turns down different roads that Mint would never have seen if Yang wasn't leading her the two finally stopped in front of a set of mangy buildings on a near abandoned street. Mint waited for Yang to start up one of her stories but when she turned expectedly towards the blonde, she was only met with a pair of delighted lilac eyes staring at her with arms open in what could only be described as a "Ta Da!" motion.

A very perplexed Mint turned to examine the particular building that Yang was drawing her attention to. The walls were covered in a mishmash of corrugated metal that looked aged to the point that the reddish brown rust colored through the white paint covering the place. Water stains ran down under the bolts that held the metal to the wall and someone had tagged the metal with black graffiti simply spelling out the word "Burgers". Two metal tables decorated the outside with potted plants surrounding the area giving a touch of color to the otherwise bleak exterior. A black painted awning hung above a pair of open wooden doors with bright red neon shining the words "Good Eats".

"So?" Yang said in barely contained excitement as she waited for any sign of reaction from her smaller friend.

"It's… ummm…," Mint hesitated, trying to find the right word for whatever she was looking at, "Rustic."

"Rustic huh," Yang smirked, looking at the confused expression on Mint's face and thinking to herself, "Yeah I guess that's somewhat accurate. This my foreign friend is the Good Eats burger shack, home of the best burgers in all of Vale!"

"DAMN STRAIGHT!" came a booming voice from inside the open double doors.

"And that!" Yang shouted, wrapping an arm around Mint and ushering her through the doors, "is the best god damn cook in the world… don't tell my dad."

Mint quickly moved her feet to avoid falling over in Yang's excitement. The two girls walked into the open shack and were met with a small room that looked like it could barely hold five people on a good day. The walls were covered with well varnished wood and the opposite wall from where the two girls walked in was dominated by a large opening with metal outlining all four sides and a long and narrow metal counter on the bottom covered in different dispensers and baskets.

Leaning on the counter was a portly man with dark skin and disheveled black hair. His mouth split open into a wicked grin showing a brilliant white smile and his chocolate brown eyes gleamed with a boisterous joy that infected Mint with a need to smile back at the man, albeit a little awkwardly. The man's chin was covered in black stubble and a grease stained apron hung from his neck with the simple phrase "Yes Ladies, I Can Cook Too".

"Yang Xiao Long!" The man slammed his hand down onto the counter and somehow managed to grow his smile even larger as he welcomed the two girls into the small room. "How is my second favorite huntress?"

"Doing better now that I've moved up to second favorite," Yang called back, her smile matching the cook's, "What happened to Jade?"

"Weapon misfired and took out one of my tables," the odd man recalled, his voice losing a bit of its mirth, "haven't been able to replace it yet and I haven't seen her since."

"Oh damn, I was wondering why it seemed emptier out there. I can go have a chat with her if you want."

"Oh don't bother, she'll turn up again. I trust her… sort of," the cook responded, waving away Yang's offer and turning his eyes over to Mint who was standing slightly behind Yang now that the blonde's attention was elsewhere, "And who is this fine beauty?"

"Crap, I'm forgetting my manners today," Yang said, turning hastily to grab Mint and bringing her back in front of her, "Mint I would like to introduce you to the man who redefined what it means to put a patty on a piece of bread. The cook who knows how to spice up anything he touches. The one. The only. Buurrrrrrrrger Master Gilmour." Yang finished her introduction with a brief drum roll as Gilmour burst out from behind the counter and struck what he probably thought was a rather impressive pose.

Mint could barely contain her laughter. The shear sight of these two made her think that they were about to start up a two-person circus act and fortunately or unfortunately (she had yet to decide) Mint was here to bear witness to their master performance.

"Thank you! Thank you! You're all too kind. Please hold your applause." Gilmour waved and bowed to an imaginary audience as Yang clapped her heart out for the man. "So," he boomed after he was done acknowledging his supposed fans, "Who do I owe the pleasure of performing for today?" Mint opened and closed her mouth, trying to find the right words to introduce herself to the rather eccentric man.

"This is my new friend Mint," Yang finally cut in when it was very apparent that Mint was well and truly at a loss for words.

"Well Mint, how can I help you on this fine evening?" Gilmour strode back behind the counter with a bounce in his step as he continued to look back at Mint.

"I-I… I ummm…" she stuttered. Mint looked from Gilmour to Yang, still completely flabbergasted at the flash of events happening in front of her.

"Mint here is new in town and is looking for the best Vale has to offer," Yang chuckled, looking bemusingly at Mint as the smaller girl flushed with a bit of embarrassment at being caught off guard.

"And so naturally you brought her to my little corner of the universe." Gilmour and Yang shared a rather odd look that told Mint that this wasn't the first time that the pair had been through this little song and dance. The two smiled at each other before Yang jumped forward and grabbed Mint's hand, dragging her closer to the front counter and directing her attention to the menu.

After Mint scanned through the list of items for a solid two minutes without actually absorbing any of the information she looked down and met the expecting eyes of Gilmour staring at her, leaning slightly over with one elbow propped on the counter. He looked at Yang again who was almost watching and they both burst into laughter causing Mint to look alarmingly between the two of them trying to figure out what joke she just missed.

After another minute of laughter Gilmour just turned back to the smaller girl with a glamourous smile. "My lord, we've really stumped her, huh Yang?"

"Yeah, even Pyrrha wasn't quite this bad."

"She was the long-haired, redheaded girl, right?" Yang nodded in confirmation and Gilmour simply chuckled as he gave Mint a long pitying look. Mint shot a glare back at Yang as she started understanding the little charade going on. The blonde just wiggled her eyebrows and gave her biggest grin as the smaller girl turned back to Gilmour as heat filled her face.

"Tell you what, if this really is your first time in Vale then I would recommend the 'Vale Special'." Mint gave a long drawn out sigh as Gilmour said this, giving the man a shrug as she admitted her defeat in this little game. "And the usual for you Yang with extra mushrooms and barbeque sauce, right?"

"You know me so well Gilmour," Yang responded as she grabbed her fuming friend and dragged her out to one of the outdoor tables. Gilmour chuckled again as he walked back to his grills, grabbing various ingredients and beginning his little symphony.

As the two girls took their seats, Mint sat back in her chair with a frown and glared at Yang with her arms crossed. Yang just sat back in her own chair relaxed as she met Mint's glare. After a few seconds of silence Yang finally broke into a smile as she sat forward, resting her arms onto the table and giving Mint her best puppy dog eyes. The smaller girl looked away, trying not to smile and give Yang yet another victory. She looked over to where Gilmour was flipping burgers on the grill, lost in his own little process and humming a little tune to himself.

Mint felt something kick her shin under the table and she snapped her attention forward to be met with Yang pretty much leaning fully on the table giving her a set of puppy eyes that would melt gold with a matching whimpering pout. Mint relented, rolling her eyes and attempting to kick Yang back but instead finding that the blonde had predicted that response and moved her chair slightly back so Mint's shorter legs couldn't reach. Instead Mint found her knee connecting with the bottom of the table, causing her to start cursing profusely as she reached down to grab her injured knee. Yang burst out in laughter as curses continued to flow from the smaller girl's mouth that even caused Gilmour to break his concentration to look over at the pair.

"You know," Mint said through gritted teeth as she rubbed her leg, "I will get you back for all of this."

"Oh, I expect nothing less," Yang responded as she leaned back into her chair, relaxing one arm behind the metal seat and leaving her other on the table between them. The two girls stared at each other with Mint's icy glare and Yang cool and calm smile. Gilmour continued to watch the odd little interaction as his hands deftly moved different ingredients around almost with a mind of their own. After three more seconds of what Gilmour saw as tension he could cut and serve back to his customers, the two girls suddenly bursted out in laughter. Gilmour felt himself ease as the air lightened, going back to assembling the odd couple's food.

"Sooooo," Mint finally drawled after she was able to catch her breath. She looked at Yang trying to gauge where to take this conversation. She was never really decent at small talk and now that they were in a secluded spot with only the birds and a rather extravagant cook to share the moment, she had no idea what she should be discussing.

"So?" Yang responded slightly deeper voiced while she drummed her fingers on the table. Both girls just looked at each other for a second before realizing they were staring and simultaneously looking everywhere but at their companion. Mint heard a small chuckle from the kitchen, causing her head to snap in that location only to see that Gilmour was shaking his head and smiling.

Mint took a deep breath and looked back at Yang who was still paying very close attention to a scavenging bird a few feet away from the table. Taking a deep breath, Mint steadied herself, wondering why a simple meal with a friend was causing her to feel so flustered. Her training had taught her how to smooth talk her way around every type of situation with all sorts of people but nothing could ever prepare her for something so… normal.

"What's wrong?" Yang asked drawing Mint out of her mind and causing her focus back onto her friend. Concern was written all over the blonde's face from the slight frown to the furrowed brow.

"Um… I-It's nothing," Mint responded, straightening her facial features out and assuming a casual posture.

"Girl, I've had enough conversations with people going through all sorts of problems to know that 'It's nothing' really means 'Oh god help me Master Yang for I am lost'. So, I'll ask again. What's wrong Mint?"

Mint chuckled under her breath. Even through the joking tone, she could hear sincerity in Yang's voice. She wanted to tell the blonde everything but her purpose reminded her of the situation and she decided on just a partial truth.

"I guess I just don't do this kind of stuff all that often," Mint said with a sigh, her fingers drumming a rhythm on her knee.

"This kind of stuff?"

"You know, meals with friends, small talk, and all this weird normal stuff that everyone seems to do. I just don't exactly have much experience with it."

"Haven't you ever just hung out with your team before," Yang asked, puzzled at this new revelation.

"We aren't exactly that close," Mint explained. Yang sat back and fixed a quizzical look onto Mint. Not speaking, just thinking everything through. "We focus on what has to be done. So, there's not a lot of time for team bonding and my work hasn't really allowed me a chance to make too many friends."

"Huh," Yang sighed, still keeping her eyes on Mint. She made no sound or movement that would indicated an incoming response. Mint just sat upright in her chair, wondering if she had said too much. The silence between the two weighed on her shoulders and every little noise around her seemed amplified to the point that she could hear every note in the song Gilmour was humming and feel the vibrations in her tapping foot that she immediately stopped, crossing one leg over the other in a vain attempt to settle her nerves. Her fingers gripped onto her chair as she continued to meet Yang's eye contact.

"Well then," Mint jumped as Yang spoke. She quickly started trying to find any hint at where Yang was taking this, "I guess I have a lot of work ahead of me."

"Ummm…" Mint's brow scrunched in confusion as Yang gave her an easy smile.

"I am going to show you the ways of the social butterfly," Yang announced as Mint relaxed slightly at the intriguing proposal, "With my help, you'll be chatting up complete strangers in no time. I can teach you all the secrets you will ever need for any social gathering."

"If you say so," Mint said back with a mix of apprehension and slight amusement at Yang's sales pitch.

"Hey if I can deal with the massive introvert that is my sister, I think I can handle you." Mint raised an eyebrow at this statement with Yang responding by wiggling her own brow causing both girls to burst out into laughter.

"Well, I see you two are having a glorious time out here!" Gilmour strode up to the two girls carrying a couple of red baskets filled with food. Yang and Mint looked over at him with tears in their eyes as they eased there breathing and moved closer to the table. Gilmour placed each meal in front of their respective owners and flourished backwards as if he had just revealed his magnum opus to the world.

Mint looked down at her food and took in the pile of something that Gilmour had just presented to her. The burger was a stack of different ingredients that looked like they had been thrown together with whatever extra stuff Gilmour had lying around his kitchen. It had a solid meat patty laying on top of a slice of lettuce with an amalgamation of green peppers, fried onions, bacon, swiss cheese, mushrooms, and coated with barbeque sauce. This was all placed inside of a pretzel bun and surrounded by a layer of seasoned fries. Her heart shuddered as she imagined all the ways this wasn't going to be good for her.

"Well?" Mint gazed up at Gilmour who was smiling down at her with one eyebrow raised as he waited for her to take a bite. He gestured back down at the burger and Mint switched her gaze over to Yang who was completely ignoring her own meal, instead choosing to lean forward, resting her chin in her hands with her elbow propped up on the table.

Mint sighed and looked back down at the burger. Delicately picking it up, she once again looked at Gilmour and Yang who were both nodding their heads and waiting with baited breath for Mint to take her first bite. Shrugging her shoulders, Mint opened her mouth and took her first bite. She slowly chewed and let all the little flavors sink in.

"Oh," Mint hummed in content as the juiciness of the patty melded with the different savory and salty tastes she was experiencing. She finished chewing and swallowed, giving a smile and nodding up at Gilmour who clapped his hands together in celebration. Mint looked over to Yang who was giving her a smug smile as she picked up an onion ring from her basket and started chewing on it.

"I think you got yourself another satisfied customer Gilmour," Yang concluded with a mouthful of onion ring. Mint rolled her eyes and reached over to flick Yang in the forehead before stealing one of her onion rings and plopping it in her mouth to join the smaller second bite of burger she had already taken. Gilmour laughed at the little interaction as Yang protested the theft of her food and Mint just smiled and continued enjoying her meal.

Gilmour walked back to his kitchen to clean up as Mint and Yang ate their food in a pleasant silence, only speaking to ask the other if they wanted to try a bite of their burger or complain when one of their sides was stolen. Gilmour only came back out when the two girls were finished to collect the empty baskets and bid them farewell. The two girls said their goodbyes to the extravagant man and promised to visit during the festival and bring all their hungry friends along with them.

Yang and Mint steadily walked back along the side streets of Vale until they found themselves wandering into the main shopping district. They never walked into any of the various stores scattered around the area, content to just window shop and let their slightly filled stomachs settle from their dinner. After about an hour of perusing, the two stopped to check the time and confirm when the last airship was leaving.

"Looks like we have about an hour, got any ideas?" Yang asked as she put away her scroll and looked at her smaller friend. Mint thought for a second before quickly looked around the area and with a shout of excitement, she grabbed onto Yang's sleeve and started pulling her along. Yang just shrugged and went along with her eager companion as they walked towards a colorful shop with a giant neon ice cream cone hanging next to the door.

They walked into the little ice cream parlour and stopped just inside the entrance, breathing in deeply as their sense of smell was overloaded with sugary delight. Walking up to the counter they both looked inside the glass display at the different barrels of ice cream. The shop had the usual chocolate and strawberry but also had a selection of oddly named flavors such as "A Grimm Surprise" and "Team SNDA". Yang even saw one flavor simply named "The Ruby Special" and instantly warned Mint to stay clear of it unless she wanted one hell of a sugar rush. The smaller girl eagerly asked the young woman behind the counter if she could try just about every one of the unusual flavors, giving Yang a thumbs up or thumbs down after each sample.

After they purchased their respective decisions, the two girls walked out with Yang holding onto a scoop of strawberry ice cream and Mint carrying a double scoop of something called "Baked Alaska" based off some region in a fiction book the owner loved. Yang led Mint along the road until they finally reached a small park where the blonde found her favorite bench that provided a perfect view of the sun as it descended behind the Vale skyline.

Sitting down, the two enjoyed their treats in blissful silence as they watched the sun disappear. Mint looked side-long at Yang who once again had her thousand-yard stare signifying she was back in her wondrous fantasy. Smiling, Mint decided to let her friend have a few more minutes in her world before scooting right up next to her and giving the blonde a bump with her shoulder.

"Hmm- What?" Yang said, startled back to reality and gazing down into the startling green eyes looking at her with bemused enjoyment.

"Your ice cream is melting all over your hand." Yang quickly looked down to her cone and realized that the strawberry ice cream had indeed started to melt and cover her fingerless gloves. Quickly she wiped her hand off on one of the napkins that they brought with them and hastily wolfed down the rest of her ice cream, instantly regretting her decision as she clutched her head and groaned in mild agony. Mint giggled at the reaction as she rubbed Yang's back in an attempt at giving some sort of comfort. After the headache passed, Yang gave Mint a smile in thanks that looked more like a grimace.

"And what have we learned?" Mint chided as Yang took a deep breath and discarded the napkins in a nearby garbage bin. Yang rolled her eyes and ignored the remark, "If it makes you feel any better, this has been quite the remarkable day. You really outdid yourself."  
"I'm glad you enjoyed it," Yang responded, leaning back and resting one of her arms across the back of the bench, "Surprised you and your team haven't already done anything like this yet."

"Like I said before, we don't exactly do personal things together. Everything's always business first."

"Really," Yang said in mild surprise, "I never would have taken Em for a stick in the mud."

"Eh, she's not really all that bad," Mint relented as she thought back to the little conversation she had in their room what felt like years ago, "She's nice and will give me advice when I need it but when all is said and done, the mission comes first." Mint let out a deep breath as she felt the pressure that always seemed to linger around her grow heavier.

"Well then you just need to get out and meet people outside your team then," Yang suggested instantly, looking around at the different groups of people wandering around the small park.

"Easier said than done," Mint quipped, letting her head fall back as she looked up at the sky.

"Why?"

Mint tilted her head sideways as she looked at the puzzled expression on Yang's face. "I don't know, I just find it hard to get to know new people," She took in a deep breath, looking back up at the passing clouds, "Every time I try, I just never feel like I can't trust them."

"Huh," Yang remarked, marveling at the confusing way her introverted friend's brain worked. She never found it hard to trust new people unless they gave her a reason not to. Yang had to constantly remind herself that some people, like her sister, didn't exactly enjoy meeting new people like she did. Yang felt her brain go into overdrive as she tried to understand this new frame of mind. If she understood it, she could better help Mint out, but it was hard for the extroverted blonde.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Mint asked, noticing the lack of witty responses from her friend after a few minutes of silence.

"I'm just curious why you find it hard to trust people?" Yang asked, still pondering the concept. Mint breathed in slowly as she gathered her thoughts. Her mind went back to the circumstances leading up to the encounter in that alleyway all those years ago when she had been Neopolitan. A scared little girl who didn't know who to turn to. She remembered the faces of all the people who sold her out, all the people except for one.

"I just didn't exactly have an ideal childhood. I only made it out of my situation thanks to my last partner. He always told me to take everything people say and do with a grain of salt and it helped me weed out those who only wanted to hurt me," Mint explained, looking up at one of the Atlas warships currently flying over the park, "I guess I just took his words to heart. He was the only other person I ever really trusted."

"What happened to him?" Yang asked, noticing the past tense in Mint's words.

"He's kinda in jail right now," Mint said rather matter of factly.

"Oh…," Yang stuttered, absorbing this new bit of information, "Um… that sucks."

"A little…" A silence settled atop the girls, Mint maintaining her gaze on the slowly darkening sky. Yang just stared at her friend as she tried to think of something to say.

"I'm sorry," Yang said, inwardly berating herself for not thinking of anything less generic.

Mint finally let her eyes fall from the sky, noticing the concern in Yang's face and quickly fixing the glum expression that her own features had settled into. "It's fine, I swear!" she hurried out, trying to get past the current mood threatening the evening, "It's all just part of a bigger plan. Everything will work out in the end…" Mint gave Yang a shaky smile, one that the blonde matched with great relief.

"If you say so," Yang said in her usual cheery voice. Mint nodded at her words as the dreary weight on Mint's chest slowly dissipated. "When he does get out though I need to have a word with him."

"Oh, and why is that?" Mint responded, lifting one eyebrow.

"'Cause you can't just go around expecting people to always lie to you. You have to be able to trust someone in your life." Mint absorbed the tidbit of advice, letting it flow through her mind and mix with all the lessons that Roman had taught her.

"I don't know if I can do that." Mint looked back out towards the sunset trying to enjoy the spread of colors filling the sky.

"So, why me then?" Yang asked the girl, cocking her head to the side. Mint hastily looked back to see Yang's face, not for the first time this evening, filled with concern.

"I… I don't entirely know." Yang just smiled and shook her head at these words and Mint tried in vain to find a better reason.

"I'm just some random girl who literally bumped into you not once but twice. This same random girl who then invited you to come into a foreign city and down some side alleys to a shady hole in the wall burger shack. There's got to be a reason why."

"Well when you put it that way," Mint said, rolling her eyes and looking back at Yang who was still staring at Mint expectedly, waiting for a better answer to her earlier question. "I don't know, ok. You just caught me off guard and I just decided to wing it."

"So you trust me, right?"

"Yeah," Mint sighed, the answer coming with surprising ease, "I guess I do."

"Well, what makes me special over everyone else… besides the obvious reasons," Yang retorted, giving Mint a cheeky smile as the smaller girl chuckled at the attempt to lighten the conversation.

"I don't know, you just seem so… simple." Yang shot the smaller girl a quick glare as Mint realized the possible insult in her answer, "No, no I mean- you just… I... Aaargh." Mint groaned as Yang let out a small laugh, enjoying seeing her friends attempts at mending the situation.

"Careful there, last person who called me simple wasn't exactly conscience to hear my witty replies to his observation." Mint took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts before walking headlong into the minefield this conversation was turning into.

"Simple is a good thing in this case," she sighed, watching the lilac eyes for any change in emotion. "You just seem to take everything at face value and I think… I think that's just what I need right now… I need a little simple in my life."

"Well in that case, I'll happily be your daily dose of simple." Yang gave the small girl a genuine smile with none of the usual joking sarcasm that typically came packaged with it. It was just filled with warmth and Mint instantly felt herself believing the blonde's words with none of the usual doubts that came when others would give her these kinds of promises.

"Thank you," Mint replied. Yang nodded and they both turned back to look at the sunset, Mint sliding closer to Yang and resting her head on her taller companion's shoulder with no words of protest from the blonde. Both girls eased into silence, enjoying the moment and staring out at the changing skyline of the city of Vale.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright so the writing every day idea doesn't really work when you're experiencing blocks at every turn. As a guy with average appearance and a slightly small social group, I don't exactly go on too many dates so I didn't have a lot of reference material to work with when it came to this chapter. A lot of rewrites went into this chapter and I hope you all enjoy my take on Yang and Neo/Mint's little adventure in Vale. I focused a lot on just the interactions with some minor fleshing out of the characters and I hope I was able to convey the inner thoughts of our two main characters well enough. I have some ideas written down (covering my monitor with post-it notes) for the next chapter so hopefully I will get it written a little quicker than these past few chapters. Regardless, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and as always leave a review if you have any comments or questions about the chapter.**

 **Guest: Yeah, motivation problems are a pain but something Burnie Burns said in one of his vods a while back (I swear I'm not obsessed) really stuck with me these past couple weeks. It's not about collecting enough motivation to finally do the task when you have enough, it's cultivating enough discipline to work on the task even when you don't want to which is just a lot more reliable in the long run. I've been trying to implement these past few days which has lead to me being a lot more productive recently.**

 **Aqua X: I hope you know that I'm putting that "best at writing Yang" comment straight on the top of my resume (hello bloated ego). Hopefully this chapter reaches you're inbox otherwise I'll see you next chapter. In response to your reviews, I'm glad you enjoyed all the little things I was throwing into chapter 8 and are able to understand how I'm trying to explain the motives behind everyone. Really glad that I'm making someone feel with my writing and I hope I was able to follow up well enough even though this was more of a fluff chapter. And don't worry about not leaving a review right away for chapter 8, it's not like I check every five minutes or anything. That would be crazy... Thank you for the continued reviews.**

 **-Thank you kindly**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Every person down every hallway leading from the courtyard to the dorms in Beacon would swear that they had been nearly blinded a few days before the Vytal festival tournament. The cause of this near catastrophe to the competing teams was a beaming Yang Xiao-Long striding back to her dorms after saying goodbye to her newest friend and making the smaller girl promise that they would try and meet up during the tournament for another night on the town where Yang could show the Haven girl her favorite clubs that she was still allowed inside.

The blonde sauntered her way back to her dorm, taking her time as she reflected on her evening. The outing had been rather refreshingly relaxing compared to the past few months. No bad guys, no evil cults, no monsters trying to tear her apart. Just her and a friend chatting. Not what she expected when she came to a school designed to teach her how to fight monsters, but she wasn't going to complain anytime soon. She got to meet someone outside of her team and it wasn't at some shady club for once.

Yang continued this train of thought until she found herself in front of her door. Taking a second to listen at the door for Weiss' snoring that she swears she doesn't do but Yang had plenty of video evidence suggesting otherwise. As Yang pressed her ear to the door, she didn't hear the princess' slumbering song confirming that no one had yet gone to sleep. Still she carefully opened the door and walked in to see lights on and her three teammates waiting in their usual places. Weiss sat at her desk reading some news article on her scroll. Blake was resting her back against her pillows with her eyes glued to her newest book while Ruby lay on her bed with her crimson earphones on, blasting some song that Yang could faintly hear the lyrics to in the silence of the room.

As she walked into the room, Blake looked up from her book to give her partner a small smile before returning her attention to the universe inside her story. The younger sister on the other hand jumped down from her bed the minute she felt the vibrations from the door shutting behind Yang. Leaving her earphones behind without actually turning off the music player, Ruby fixed her sister with an odd look and a cheeky smile, reading everything she needed to from the blonde's still beaming face.

"So Yang, how'd the trip into Vale go?" Ruby asked as Yang kicked her shoes off and rested herself down onto the end of Blake's bed. Blake scooted her own legs towards herself to make room for the blonde, completely unfazed by the events.

"Pretty well," Yang simply responded, lying back and accepting the interrogation she was about to get.

"You went into Vale?" Blake asked softly, her ears perking up at the new piece of information.

"Yeah, I went after we all got back from Ice Queen's surprise afternoon tournament briefing." A small huff from the desks caused Yang to look over at her white-haired teammate who was trying very hard to look like she wasn't listening in to her friend's conversation.

"Didn't Rubes tell you guys?" Yang continued, switching her gaze over to her sister who was currently looking at her feet and kicking at some imaginary pebble. Blake also looked at the team leader as Ruby suddenly felt that odd uncomfortable feeling of being the center of attention. She looked up to see Blake's amber gaze with one eyebrow raised in an unasked question.

"I forgot alright!" Ruby shouted, stomping one foot down as she looked imploringly from sister to friend, "I kept falling asleep during Weiss' lecture and I was really sleepy afterwards and I just wanted to take a nap. I was going to tell everyone… eventually." Ruby's whine petered off as she noticed Blake and Yang exchange bemused glances.

Ruby stuck her tongue out at the two girls resting on the lower bunk as the three heard a small huff from the corner. Looking over, the trio saw that Weiss had set her phone down and turned to send daggers at the team leader. Weiss opened her mouth, ready to unleash the tsunami of reprimands she had prepped for such an occasion, remembering how Ruby's odd sniffles and mutters while she napped had so thoroughly disrupted Weiss' carefully planned out meeting.

"Soooo, what'd you all do while you were in Vale?" Weiss' words were cut off before they could start as Blake hurried to move the conversation to safer waters. Weiss moved her glare to her raven-haired friend as Yang chuckled at the debacle unfolding in front of her. Blake's pleading eyes urged her to go with the new conversation lest they all wanted to sit here for the next couple of hours listening to another speech about discipline and needing to represent the pinnacle of honor for Beacon in the upcoming Vytal Tournament.

"Oh, you know…" Yang sighed, noticing Blake's thankful smile as Weiss seemed to let the air out of her lungs with a look that told the blonde full well that this wasn't over. "Went to go say hi to Gilmour and take a walk around town."  
"You were with her weren't you," Weiss said plainly, taking a moment to read Yang's relaxed posture and content smile for the first time since she walked into the room. Yang nodded in response still keeping her relaxed posture. Weiss turned to Blake and found the amber eyes looking back at her, one eyebrow raised in an unasked question. Weiss sighed and shrugged her shoulders, her lips pursed in concern. Blake's ears flattened in response and this pattern continued, Yang watching every odd movement in her friends. This wasn't the first time the monochromed duo had these little silent conversations and Yang always just resigned herself to wait until they finished and one of them broke the silence (usually Weiss) to tell the other two teammates their concerns.

"Um…" came a small voice from the opposite side of the room. Yang moved her gaze over to the other set of beds where Ruby sat patting her knees with her hands and waiting for the silent conversation to end so she could ask the questions clogging her mind.

"Speak up Rubes, before you blow a gasket." Yang chided, trying not to laugh at the girl's tapping foot and impatient bouncing. Ruby looked over at Yang and let go of the breath that she had held for the past few agonizing seconds of silence.

"Who did you end up going into Vale with, Nora and Pyrrha were at the JNPR team meeting thing Jaune started after he heard about Weiss' and we were all here?" Yang could see her sister's brain working to try and remember any other people that Yang hung out with on a semi daily basis.

"I went with one of the girls from Haven." Yang admitted.  
Ruby looked puzzled as she ran through all the Haven people they knew. "Em? I thought I saw her with that really tall and silent girl all day."

"No, I went with Mint," Yang paused for a second as she saw her sister's brows scrunch in confusion as she tried to put a face to the name, "Don't you remember? The girl we ate with a couple weeks ago. Short, black ponytails, green eyes… come on Rubes." Yang shook her head at her sister's inability to remember the people she meet.

"The girl your sister hasn't stopped obsessing over for the past few weeks." The teasing tone caused Yang's head snapped over to Blake who apparently had finished her silent conversation with Weiss and now was busy watching the small exchange between the two sisters. Yang glared at her and was meet with twinkling amber eyes and a small sly smile that somehow was even more aggravating. Blake nudged Yang with her toes and the blonde just responded by sticking her tongue out at her friend and returning her gaze back to her sister who was beaming at Yang.

"What?" Yang shot at her sister, a little put off by the knowing look in those wide silver eyes.

"Oh nothing?" Ruby chided in a singsong voice, leaning back onto Weiss' bed, causing the ice queen to shoot her a glare.

"We're just friends…" Yang growled at her sister. Blake's ears perked up at the obvious protesting tone as her eyes shifted from sister to sister

"Friends huh?" the younger sibling asked, winking over at Blake who suppressed a small giggle, "Kinda like Evelynn from Weapon Maintenance."

"Who's Evelynn?" Blake asked, feeding the conversation and enjoying how Yang's eyes seemed to have grown twice their size and a small blush had formed on her face.

"Just some girl from Signal," Yang answered hastily, shooting Ruby a crimson glare.

"More than just some girl I assume?" Blake said, receiving her own killer glare from the blonde.

"We were just friends." The words came out muffled through the blonde's gritted teeth as even Weiss chuckled a little at the playful teasing. The heiress had no regrets as Yang glanced over at her for a brief second before returning to her sister. Weiss remembered the playful banter that Yang had when the heiress was trying to get Neptune to ask her to the Beacon Ball and in her eyes, this was karma at its finest.

"Oh sure, just friends. And I'm sure the ten minutes when you two disappeared during class was just you two having a friendly conversation." Yang could not have gotten redder if she had draped Ruby's cloak over her face which was slowly becoming a more appealing alternative to this conversation. She spluttered in response as her crimson eyes shifted from Weiss who had once eyebrow raised to Blake who was attempting and failing to control her laughter by covering her mouth and finally Ruby who was spread eagle on Weiss' bed laughing as her feet kicked in the air.

"THAT WAS NOTHING!" Yang finally managed as a shout that could probably be heard over in the adjacent dorms.

"Even Uncle Qrow noticed!" Ruby shrieked out through bouts of laughter and attempted gasps of air.

"Me thinks the girl doth protests too much," Weiss added, trying to suppress her own laughter.

"No one asked you Ice Queen!" Yang snapped back at Weiss who just meet the blonde's fiery gaze with a small smile. Raising her arms in the air in mock surrender before Yang found something to throw at Weiss, the heiress released the small laugh she had been trying to hide, joining Blake and Ruby in their mirth. Yang just sat cross armed and took the ridicule, already forming a plan of revenge against her traitorous sister.

"Anyway," Blake finally said after wiping a tear forming at the corner of her eye, "I think it's cute that you've managed to find someone outside of the group."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yang muttered, breaking away from the over complicated plots forming in her head, "I know plenty of people outside of you guys and JNPR."

"I know," Blake hastily added before the golden dragon started breathing fire, "I'm just saying that you pretty much skipped into the room after just one evening in town with her. She must be doing something right."

Yang had no remark or retort for that. She did feel elated after her little shindig in town with Mint and no one she had met since she came to Beacon besides her teammates had ever made her feel this happy. Everything felt like it was clicking into place whenever the odd little Haven girl was around and now that Yang thought of it, she did have a habit of letting her thoughts drift to Mint during classes and Weiss' lectures. But Yang saw nothing wrong with that. The green-eyed girl was becoming a good friend, something fun and new in her life that broke the norm that was starting to become her social life at Beacon. Her team and team JNPR were fine, but Mint just brought something… refreshing to the table.

The edges of Yang's mouth curled without her realizing and Blake smiled at the obvious internal debate going on in the blonde's mind. Ruby still lay on the bed, holding her sides as she tried to recover from her little sisterly fun. It was only Weiss who looked uneasy now that everything had calmed down. Her mind was allowed to wander back to the original source of her worry all those weeks prior when she had first been introduced to Mint. She looked from Yang to Blake, wanting to bring her troubles to the table but at the same time not wanting to ruin the moment.

Blake finally caught her eye and the smile slipped from her face as one eyebrow rose in question at the conflict in the heiress' features. Another silent conversation started between the two, one that Yang did not miss.

"Ok, what is wrong?" Yang announced, startling both the girls and causing them to shift their gaze to the blonde. They both saw the resolve in Yang's eyes and knew that she wasn't going to drop it. Sharing one last glance at each other, Blake gave Weiss a little shrug and a small smile of encouragement while Weiss just let out a deep breath and steeled herself for whatever outcome was about to happen.

"Its just… I…" Weiss stuttered out, trying to find the right words to accurately describe her problem. Yang straightened up a little at this, seeing the slight stutter in the usually proper heiress as a clear sign that something was wrong.

"Just let it out Weiss," Yang said in her most soothing, motherly voice, trying to calm the girl's nerves, "I'm a big girl, I'm sure I can handle it." Weiss let the soft tones of Yang's voice sink in and quell some of the knots in her stomach. Giving a small nod, she looked back up at Yang.

"It's just, I don't know if you should be trusting this Mint girl so much," Weiss finally let out as evenly as she could muster.

"What do you mean?" Yang asked, recalling the conversation she had with Weiss what felt like days ago.

"I just think there's something off with her, the way she acts around everyone is just not sitting right with me."

"We've been over this," Yang sighed, remembering all those days ago when she had confided her desire to become friends with Mint with Weiss, "She was just nervous to meet new people."

"It was something other than that," Weiss said, her voice rising in volume and causing Ruby to sit up at the signs of distress in her partner's voice.

"Then what was it?" Yang demanded, a little more forcefully then she had intended.

"Call it a business sense ok!" Weiss blurted out with the escalation in Yang's voice, her concern pouring out into every word, "She's hiding something. I'm not sure what it is but I get a bad feeling whenever I see her around school and I just can't explain it."

"I said it before Weiss, not everything is like your father's business."

"But it is!" the heiress shouted, her voice getting louder with every sentence to the point that Ruby was on her feet, trying to figure out what to do to ease her partner's destress. Weiss noticed this sudden movement and the worry in her leader's silver eyes and tried her best to bring her voice down even if her emotions didn't ease in the slightest.

"Everything is like my father's business. People are people and everyone has something that their hiding. And those secrets… they can cause so much pain in everyone around them if not properly checked." Weiss let her head fall and a small tear broke through the heiress' walls. Yang saw this and quickly stood. She moved to Weiss' side, bringing an arm around the snowy-haired girl and giving a slight squeeze.  
"I just don't want to see any of you get hurt…"

The small voice, nearly broke Yang. This was one of the few times Weiss had broken down and disclosed the more unfortunate side of her past. Everytime any of them had tried to break through the icy barrier they had just been dismissed and the conversation was hastily moved. Now as Weiss sat crying at Yang's side, the blonde felt an urge to go to Atlas and knock a few heads to find out what was truly going on.

But for now, Weiss needed her here. Yang brought Weiss close as Ruby and Blake moved to her side. Not normally one for these kinds of emotions, Weiss felt uncomfortable with everyone coddling her like this but Yang didn't let go and eventually Weiss let the blonde's motherly warmth through. She leaned into Yang and tried to let the concern of the past few minutes ease out of her as tears slipped down her cheek.

After several minutes of silence, Yang brought Weiss away from her and held her at arms-length, looking deeply into her eyes to make sure the heiress was paying attention. Weiss brought her head up and light blue met lilac as Yang gave her a warm smile.

"I promise to be on my guard," Yang said softly, making sure Weiss understood her meaning, "But we have to learn to trust other people. The moment we lose faith in each other and start questioning every move is the day that people like Torchwick and all the conniving people at your father's company win. And I trust you guys more than anything. Can you trust me on this one?"

Weiss let the blondes' words sink in and after a few seconds let a smile grace her features responding to the question with a simple, "Yes…". Yang smiled back and let the heiress go, standing herself up and stretching out her limbs.

"Well in that case, I'm exhausted and my bunk is calling for my attention," Yang announced, bringing her voice back to its usual carefree tones. Everyone else smiled as the tension eased in the room. Blake grabbed a box of tissues and tossed it onto Weiss' desk. The snowy-haired girl gave a silent thank you and dabbed the tears from her cheeks.

"Good idea," Weiss said, back in her confident voice after she felt sufficiently back to her normal self. She stood up from her seat and moved to the wardrobe to pick out her pajamas, "We should probably all get some sleep. We have a big next few days ahead of us and we'll all need as much rest as possible.

The rest of the team nodded at this and started easing into their nightly traditions, laying down to get some sleep for the Vytal Festival tournament.

* * *

Spectators roared all over the flying stadium as Team RWBY fought against Team ABRN in the first round of the Vytal Festival tournament. Explosions roared across the stage as members of both teams slid across the icy half and climbed through the fiery crystal structures of the second half of the fighting circle. Both teams had their own styles and strategies that created one hell of a spectacle that the assembled crowd ate up.

Steam from the two opposing sides of the stadium caused the fog of the fight to be hard to follow unless you were giving the match one-hundred percent of your attention. Luckily for a certain smaller girl who managed to… "maneuver" her way to the front of the stands, she was entirely entrapped by the movements of the fighters. Or at least one of the fighters in particular.

Mint watched the yellow fighter that seemed to dominate her mind, dominate the battle field as she ran across the fiery terrain to spar off with a darker skinned member of team ABRN clad in a sort of yellow robe slung over one shoulder. The two squared off in their own little side of the stage throwing punches and matching each other blow for blow. The ABRN girl was a little more controlled in her fighting but still dished out an equal amount of brute force at Yang, culminating in both girls throwing punches that intercepted each other and caused a shock wave to fly across the ring and into the lower stands.

Mint took a step back to catch her balance and couldn't help smiling at the power of the fight. She moved her eyes back to the two girls who were once again exchanging blows and Mint saw a little gleam that Yang didn't seem to catch as the ABRN girl produced a knife on a wire and used it to catch Yang off guard, sending her reeling at the unexpected series of blows thrown at her in tandem with the almost invisible wired knife.

The ABRN girl finally took Yang off balance and slammed into her, sending her flying into the icy domain of the ring where Yang had to pause as she slid around trying to catch herself before she fell. Mint shook her head in disappointment as she watched the exchange, remembering how Yang always had a knack for not respecting an opponent's ability to pull an unexpected trick out of one's sleeve, in this case literally. She always seemed to rely on her own brute force to get through them and she should know better at this point from her own past experiences.

Mint brought her attention back to the match as she saw another unseen threat behind Yang as a different member of ABRN prepared to fire one last shot at the unexpecting blonde. Mint shouted in vain as a flash of white powder erupted around the blonde. Her heart stopped as she tried to see through the dust for any sign of Yang. Luckily for her, the fog settled quickly to show that the ABRN member was now encased in ice from the hip down and his weapon was lying out of reach. Mint looked over and saw that the younger sister, Ruby, was the blonde's salvation and as the younger girl was shouting something at Yang, the white-haired membered of the team sent another ABRN member hurtling away from the team leader.

Mint breathed a sigh of relief as she looked back to Yang who was getting herself situated on the ice. The blonde looked back to the member of ABRN who was caught in the ice and just as Mint thought that she would deliver the final blow, Yang sped off on the ice to aid her teammates in other skirmishes. Another mistake in the experienced fighter's eye. Always make sure that an incapacitated threat won't be able to get up to become a nuisance later. A lesson that Mint as Neo was prepared to demonstrate to Yang all those weeks ago.

The mistake was confirmed in her mind when the ABRN member on the fascinating dust board sped over to her trapped teammate and freed him with her fire dust empowered device. The previous trapped member picked up his gun and sped off to rejoin the fight as Mint just shook her head. Luckily for Yang and her team, this other team was one member down as the dust board member got knocked out of the ring by a bit of impressive trickery by the faunus on Team RWBY. Mint gave a little nod of approval and looked around to see that without the full team, ABRN was falling apart.

The two men on the team quickly got rounded up onto the ice domain and with a quick use of ice dust, the white-haired girl entrapped the two into an icy fist and sent them rolling steadily towards the end of the ring. The dark-skinned girl of the team shook her head as she saw her helpless team members and quickly slid over to stop the ball from ringing out her two teammates. The girl stood in front of the rolling ice ball and, placing one foot behind her for stability, punched her teammates tomb into literal icy mist.

The remaining members of ABRN got to their feet and Mint switched her gaze over to RWBY who were quickly acting on the disheveled state of their opponents. The white-haired girl called out to Yang and made a half-pike of ice that the blonde rocketed towards using the force from her Ember Celica. The faunus girl then threw Yang her weapon connected to a ribbon that had previously been around her arm.

Mint watched in awe as the faunus girl hurtled herself forward with Yang in tow and while the members of ABRN were still gathering themselves together, the black-haired girl hurtled Yang over her shoulder who with a wink and one earthshattering blast from her gauntlets, sent the entire remaining ABRN team hurtling into the fiery mountains on the other side of the ring.  
The buzzer went off and Mint let out a shout of celebration. She didn't care that technically she was supposed to be rooting for the Haven team as she was disguised as a member of that school, all that mattered was that Team RWBY had won their match in a rather convincing fashion. Mint felt her smile widen as she saw Yang's own jubilation at the hard-fought win. The team slowly left the colosseum and Mint hurried to the front entrance to hopefully catch the blonde before they headed off to wherever they were going to celebrate the victory.

"You seem to be off in a hurry."

Mint felt her heart drop as she stopped right in front of the exit to the colosseum. One student bumped into her and scowled at the smaller girl but she didn't even acknowledge his presence as she turned to see fiery eyes staring at her. The long black hair curled down to her shoulders and a smile that didn't touch the woman's eyes greeted her. Mint's skin crawled as she felt the woman's gaze seemingly stare straight through the disguise that Neo had become accustomed to.

"There are more matches to come," Cinder cooed not taking her eyes off Neo lest she use her semblance to try and slink away, "follow me, we saved you a seat."

The crowd of people around Neo continued to walk around her, ignoring what seemed like a normal conversation between teammates. However, the seasoned criminal could see the veiled command underneath the simple statement and like a good underling, walked without hesitation behind Cinder as she moved away from the exit. Every thought of wanting to catch Yang before she and her team left vanished from her mind as Neo instead wondered what was so important that Cinder sought her out personally instead of sending Emerald or Mercury to talk to her.

The two women continued to walk along the colosseum path, slowed by the numerous spectators moving against them towards the exit. Where Neo had to dip and maneuver around the masses heading the opposite direction, people tended to simply part and move out of Cinder's way as she walked along, head held high and purpose in every step. This did nothing to calm the clump of nerves crawling in the pit of Neo's stomach as they made their way towards one of the service entrances that allowed the workers to move around the stadium without having to negotiate the crowds.

Making their way deeper into the service entrance, Cinder walked purposefully into a darkened room off the hallway and closed the door behind Neo. A small flicker of comfort grew in the smaller girl as she felt the obscurity of the darkness around her. The brief flame was quickly snuffed when she turned to look at her boss and was meet with slightly glowing eyes and an absence of the albeit false smile that Cinder had donned while out in public. She was straight faced, not angry, just absent of emotion. Back to business.

"You did well in the round," Cinder said in her sultry voice walking closer to Neo. Neo was taken aback by the small compliment from the taller woman. She gave Cinder a nod and was even further surprised by the small smile her boss had. "Everything is going as planned, the pieces are in place and your talents have lived up to your partner's praises."

Neo felt a slight glow in her chest at the thought of Roman's pride. The cold atmosphere of the room being kept ever so slightly at bay and the smaller girl felt some of her confidence come back to her.

"That being said, your presence here is no longer required."

"What?" The small flame immediately extinguished as Neo processed the new change in events.

"Mercury and Emerald will be taking the next round of the tournament." Nothing new there, Neo knew that the two criminals played well off of each other and with everything she knew of the plan, Merc and Emerald needed to continue to play an active roll around Beacon.

"I want you to head back to the warehouse and make sure things are in order for when we proceed to the next phase of the plan. I don't trust Mr. Taurus alone with the supplies and I would like you to be there until the final play."

Neo continued to stare at Cinder understanding the logic behind what her boss was saying to her. She needed to be at the warehouse to grab the proper supplies needed for the final stage of the tournament. It was her job, the role set for her when Torchwick brought her in on the job. And yet…

A flash of gold flew through Neo's vision as she felt a new sense of warmth around her.

Yang. With her in the warehouse, tied up with babysitting duty, she wouldn't be able to spend time around Beacon. That meant no more escapades with the blonde who had been dominating her thoughts as of late. For once in her lifetime the darkness around her felt suffocating and the chill in the room slowly sapped away at her, threatening the tiny golden warmth inside.

Cinder noticed the change in the normally professional criminal standing in front of her. The way her eyes seemed to glaze over for a moment and a slight tremor grew in her right arm that resulted in the smaller girl clenching her fist in a vain attempt to cease the involuntary movement.

"Is there something wrong?" Cinder inquired, letting a slight frown break her normally indomitable demeanor as she examined her pawn.

"No… it's- it's nothing mam," Neo stuttered, thinking quickly while trying not to look directly into Cinder's eyes.

"Come now my dear," the taller woman cooed, "Something is troubling you."

"I just… Don't you think I would be more useful here? I can still get more information on some of the possible problems that may arise."

Cinder thought for a second, still contemplating the little twitches and movements in the smaller girl that didn't exist all those weeks ago when she was first introduced as a possible new accomplice. Neo stood as still and professional as she could while her inside warred with each other. Everything inside her was screaming that she needed to stay no matter what Cinder said. And yet a tiny voice inside the back of her head spoke out in disapproval. The words were discordant and fuzzy but they still resonated inside her head and awoke the professionalism so deep seeded inside of Neo's mind that she knew that if she was ordered to leave by her contractor, she would do it without excuse or complaint. No matter how much it pained her.

"No, I believe you will be more useful at the warehouse. We have all the information we need and the plan is in motion. All we need now is for everyone to be in place when they need to be, and your place right now is at the warehouse ensuring that everything is set." Cinder's calm voice crushed the little warmth inside her and the combatants inside of Neo set down their arms as the smaller criminal stared at the indominable resolve in her boss' cold glowing eyes. Neo gave a small nod and banished whatever feelings she had before, standing up straight and folding her arms behind her back.

Cinder smiled slightly as she saw the submission manifest in the usually confident eyes. She knew where the girl's true motives lie and while the feelings were touching and understandable, they weren't acceptable. She needed pawns not people.

"Now that that's settled, I believe the next match is starting shortly. Might be an interesting one." With that Cinder strode from the room, leaving Neo behind, the darkness feeling crushing on top of her. Everything felt so unnaturally cold and for once she felt the need to leave the shadows and find herself some semblance of warmth.

Yang felt uncomfortably warm. Her stomach was full and she still could feel the sweet strain of her tired muscles after a hard-fought victory. She closed her eyes as she simply absorbed the relaxed mood of the fair around her. Chatter and shrieks of glee emanated from different booths as students and citizens of Vale mingled over different prospective items available at some of the various vendors. She could hear children shrieking as they won giant stuffed prizes at the different games set up to amuse people between matches. Everything was just so chaotically calm that Yang just couldn't help smiling.

"Alright Team RWBY!, Lets go before all the good seats are taken." Her sister's voice forced her eyes open as Yang's groaning teammates stood up and felt the unfortunate tightening of worked muscles. Rising from the stool of the little noodle shop that Team RWBY had stopped at, Yang groaned as everything stretched out and her legs reawoke after about an hour of inactivity. She took one step forward and felt everything fighting her movements as the blood recirculated through her body.

The team had just finished saying good luck to JNPR in their first match and watched them leave, allowing themselves a little more time to let their massive meal effectively settle into their stomachs. Unfortunately, the extra minutes of rest just served to let Yang's muscles grow cold and now everything rebooted as the team slowly walked forward through the festival fair grounds towards the airships that served as the taxis back to the stadium.

As the team walked in sluggish, content silence, Yang felt the hairs on the back of her neck slowly stand on end as she felt the sensation of a familiar stare on her. Her head quickly snapped around to try and find the source of her new discomfort. She scanned from booth to booth, making eye contact with a few people but none really setting off the alarms in her head.

Eventually giving a huff of confusion, she turned back forward and quickened her stride to catch up with her team who hadn't noticed her slow down. She continued walking, only now with a nagging feeling in the back of her head replacing the sluggish contentedness. She knew someone was watching her but every time she quickly glanced around she saw no one really paying her any special attention.

The team finally reached the outskirts of the fair ground as they made their way along the tree line towards the airfield. Leaves of various colors fell to the ground around them as they continued to walk along, Yang letting her suspicions go as she gazed fondly around at the changing trees. The team had made their way for a few more minutes before the nagging feeling flared suddenly red hot in Yang's mind.

"Hey Yang…"

Only Yang whose attention was already on high alert to everything around her and Blake and her sensitive faunus hearing noticed the small voice originating from the trees. Yang quickly turned to find the source while Blake just curiously glanced around the shadows until both of them finally found the small female form almost hiding next to one of the large trees a few meters into the tree line.

Blake gazed puzzled at the slightly obscured girl, not fully recognizing her. Yang on the other hand immediately noticed the black ponytails and startling green eyes and quickly lost all sense of alarm as she raised a hand in greeting and grew a giant smile.

"Hey Mint!" Yang's sudden call caused Ruby and Weiss to turn and notice that their two friends had fallen a bit behind them. Quickly making their way back together they both stared into the forest to where Yang and Blake's attention were. Mint stepped out from the shadows and slowly approached the group as Ruby raised her own hand in a mild greeting.

Mint acknowledged each of the other members of team RWBY, pausing briefly as she noticed Weiss' disapproving look. Shrugging it off she turned her gaze back to the reason she had been lurking around the fairgrounds to begin with. Yang noticed the odd look on Weiss' face and remembered back to the conversation a couple days back, feeling her heart sink as she remembered her teammates reservations.

Yang returned her gaze back to Mint with a mild sense of unease worming its way into the feeling of happiness that had originally filled her being. Without the veil of happiness at seeing her friend again shrouding her mind, she noticed that Mint's gaze kept falling away from Yang's and she was fidgeting with her gloves. The unease now festering, Yang's smile slowly fell away.

"We need to talk," the small voice said. Yang blinked in surprise as Mint finally looked steadily into her eyes, sadness lurking behind the brilliant green.

"Umm… Yeah," Yang stumbled out, feeling like a ball was slowly forming in her throat and preventing her from speaking. Taking a deep breath, she put back on a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, "We just ate lunch and were planning on catching our friends match. If you wanted to come with we could go get dinner afterwards?"

"No, we need to talk now," the steel in Mint's voice set Yang even more at edge and the feeling spread to the rest of her teammates as each of them looked at each other. Yang heard the desperation pouring from Mint's words and she took a deep breath before looking around at her friends.

"Hey why don't you all go on ahead, I'll catch up with you." Yang said steadily to her teammates, giving a reassuring nod and a smile to Blake and Ruby that seemed to help ease whatever tension they were feeling. Her gaze lingered on Weiss who was giving her a look of apprehension as if she wanted to say something but didn't want to make a tense situation worst.

Yang reached out a hand and put it on Weiss' shoulder, giving her a genuine smile. She tried to convey through the simple touch that she remembered her teammates worries. After a brief moment, Weiss' shoulders relaxed and she smiled back at Yang. Retracting her hand, the rest of the team slowly turned and continued walking as Yang looked back to see Mint had started walking into the forest. She looked back and beckoned Yang to follow.

Taking a deep breath and burying the new pit of nerves growing in her stomach, Yang stepped into the trees. They only walked a few meters in before stopping at the same tree Mint had been waiting at earlier. The two girls stood in an uncomfortable silence as Yang waited for Mint to say what was on her mind. After a few seconds Yang took a small breath, realizing that she needed to give this conversation a small push if this conversation was going to go anywhere.

"So, how's the tournament going for you? Heard you guys won your first match" Yang said slowly, rubbing the back of her neck as she tried to lighten the air a little. Mint hastily waved away at the attempt of small talk, looking slightly ill as she tryed to gather some amount of courage for whatever she needed to tell Yang.

"We need to talk," she said simply, her gaze once again slipping from Yang's.

"Yeah you already said that earlier," Yang chided back, giving her a small jesting smile to try and ease her friend's nerves.

"I know, I'm sorry… It's just," Mint took a deep breath and locked her gaze onto Yang, sadness and determination mixing inside the emerald.

"We can't see each other anymore…"

* * *

 **A/N: After much a too long a wait, here is the 11th chapter of my little story. We're starting to get into the canon parts of RWBY Volume 3 and turns out Cinder don't care too much about what Neo wants. Hopefully you guys are enjoying the story so far and I'm terribly sorry about the lack of updates recently. August was a cluster f*$k of moves and I have a lot of other excuse that kinda just boil down to I've been having other things blocking my time and with whatever free time I have I just get kinda lazy and turn on Netflix. C'est la vie. Hope you enjoyed this little chapter that is my attempt at trying to move away from the fluff of the previous chapters and getting back into the wider conflict of the story and how it would this unlikely duo. Please leave a review if you have any comments or questions as feedback is always appreciated.**

 **Sakura039: Roger that, one chapter coming up! Glad you're enjoying and hopefully I can get another chapter up sooner rather than later.**

 **AquaX: GGWP. I try my best at being clever some times and it makes me happy when it pays. For the second part, Mint is steadily getting more comfortable around Yang and as she has never had a friend to confide her story to besides Torchwick she's letting things slip from time to time as Yang's looser demeanor rubs off on her. And the "date" was always a plan in my mind from a few chapters past, even if it wasn't how Yang and Mint had intended for the evening to go. I typically write out of my ass for the finer details of a story while really only plotting major plot points out in advance (like the date or the kidnapping in the beginning of the story). If it makes you feel better though, your and other people's comments do sometimes inspire some points of the story in minor ways if I think of an intriguing idea while reading them.**


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